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Another top Indian cricket official quit yesterday, piling more pressure on the beleaguered president of the world’s richest cricketing body to resign over an escalating betting scandal.
Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman Rajeev Shukla told the Press Trust of India he was resigning from the post “in the best interest of Indian cricket” in the wake of the spot-fixing scandal that has ensnared the glitzy league.
“I have decided to quit as IPL chairman. It is a decision which I was pondering over for some time. I think it is time to step down,” Shukla was quoted as saying by the news agency.
Shukla’s announcement came on the eve of a crucial meeting of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in the southern city of Chennai that is expected to decide the fate of the cricket body’s president N Srinivasan.
Srinivasan has been pressed to quit after his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan was arrested last week for allegedly taking part in the illegal betting row embroiling the IPL that has dismayed fans in the cricket-mad subcontinent.
Shukla’s resignation from the powerful IPL post followed the resignations of BCCI joint secretary Sanjay Jagdale and treasurer Ajay Shirke yesterday over the spot-fixing row.
“Sanjay Jagdale and Ajay Shirke resigned in the best interest of Indian cricket. I thought this is the right time,” Shukla said.
The resignations of the BCCI officials have thrown the running of the cricket body into turmoil and were front-page news in India on Saturday with the daily The Times of India declaring in a headline: “Game all but over for Srinivasan.”
On Friday evening, the isolated BCCI chief, ruled out his resignation after earlier saying he would not be “bulldozed or railroaded” into quitting when he had done no wrong.
Srinivasan is a hugely powerful cricket figure, who runs India’s national sport, a business empire and the Rajasthan Royals which is the most successful team in the IPL.
BCCI joint secretary Anurag Thakur announced an emergency board meeting for today so that he and other members could “speak their minds”.
“All these issues will be discussed during the meeting,” he told reporters. Shukla said “some announcement is likely to be made there”, without elaborating.
Media reports say all the five vice presidents of the world’s richest cricket body were ready to resign if Srinivasan refuses to step aside himself. The resignation of the BCCI secretary and treasurer came just six days after the BCCI boss insisted he had the board’s unanimous support.
Indian news channel NDTV, quoting unnamed sources, reported that the BCCI vice-presidents were piling pressure on the board president to quit.
“Either you go or we go,” the television station quoted the vice-presidents as telling their boss.
Media reports said a face-saving compromise might be reached in which Srinivasan would step down while the police probe into the spot-fixing scandal was ongoing.
The arrest of Srinivasan’s son-in-law came after Test paceman Shanthakumaran Sreesanth and two teammates in the Rajasthan Royals—Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila—were also taken into custody.
All the accused deny any wrongdoing. The players are in jail in New Delhi after police accused them of deliberately bowling badly in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars after striking deals with bookmakers.
The well-connected 68-year-old Srinivasan from southern Tamil Nadu state, who was elected as the BCCI president in 2011, can only be removed if two-thirds of members of the scandal-riven board vote against him.
Spot-fixing is an illegal activity in which a specific part of a game, but not the result, is fixed, such as the timing of no balls and wide deliveries.
The scandal has caused outrage among fans in the cricket-mad region.