CHENNAI: It goes without saying that the Mudgal Committee report, slated for hearing on Friday, will impact Indian cricket. But according to Indian cricket board sources, much to their relief, it wouldn’t be the perceived Waterloo of exiled chief N Srinivasan. That he himself had requested the Supreme Court to open the sealed-cover conclusions of the report apparently accrues from his confidence that it will give him a clean chit.
BCCI, hence, are in haste for the hearing to begin so that the deck will be cleared for the all-significant AGM, scheduled on November 20. “We are confident that he will be absolved of all charges and will be soon back as president. We want the hearing to happen as early as possible, for the AGM had already been delayed,” said a top source.
Moreover, Srinivasan is reportedly parleying with East Zone members, whose turn it is to nominate the president. It is widely assumed that Srinivasan would contest presidential election for a second consecutive term, for which the board had amended its regulations. He would likely be given a nominal “warning” for being unaware of the prevailing corruption.
However, his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan could find himself in choppy waters, as the voice samples of a tapped conversation between him and a senior national player regarding a “fix that went wrong”, were authenticated by forensic experts. If proved, Meiyappan’s involvement would cast serious doubts on the future of Chennai Super Kings, as the committee, in their interim report, was convinced of his role as a team official, despite the franchise officials’ denials.
Interestingly, the aforementioned player was neither part of CSK nor Rajasthan Royals, the under-scrutiny franchises. He is a national team regular either, but is still active in domestic cricket. The sleuths have found incriminating evidences against the Rajasthan trio of S Sreesanth, Ashok Chandila and Ankeet Chavan. According to sources, the report also mentions Royals’ owner Raj Kundra, though the context is not clear.
Meanwhile, the panel had probed the alleged conflict of interest charges against India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni. He apparently had shares in Rhiti Sports Management Private Limited, which handles among other prominent players Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja. The investigators had allegedly found proofs of the firm buying back 30,000 (15 per cent stake) shares from Dhoni between March 22 and April 24, 2013.
Even if the final Mudgal report — believed to be similar to the one submitted in February — indicts certain individuals, the court will take a call on whether to wait for the police to complete its probe and file its chargesheet or issue some other orders on an emergency basis.