N Srinivasan was “quite happy” after the Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed him to take charge as BCCI president and said the cricket board “needs somebody” to run it.
“I think the Supreme Court has said I can resume functioning and discharge my functions. So I am quite happy because BCCI needs somebody,” Srinivasan said after the ruling.
The apex court also set up a probe panel headed by former chief justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court Mukul Mudgal to inquire into the allegation of betting and spot-fixing in IPL.
The Tamil Nadu strongman did not seem too concern with a new committee being formed.
“I have no comment on the new committee, Supreme Court has directly formed it. I am not a part of it. I have nothing to do with it,” he said.
The court has asked the probe panel to complete its inquiry within four months. A bench of Justice AK Patnaik and Justice J S Kehar said the BCCI and its president Srinivasan would completely keep off the probe panel but will extend all the facilities required by the investigators.
The other two members of the probe panel, which has been asked to submit its report in four months, are senior counsel and Additional Solicitor General L Nageshwar Rao and senior advocate Nilay Dutta, also an official of Assam Cricket Association (ACA).
The court order appointing the probe committee came after the petitioner Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB) and the respondent BCCI conveyed their consent to the court’s earlier suggestion to appoint an independent panel to probe the allegations of spot-fixing and betting during the IPL.
The Supreme Court in an earlier order restrained Srinivasan from taking charge of the apex cricketing body. Srinivasan was elected president unopposed for a third year running at the BCCI Annual General Meeting in Chennai on September 29.
The CAB, which is not recognised by the BCCI, filed a petition in the Supreme Court that Srinivasan be barred from contesting the BCCI presidential election.
The petition was filed on the ground that Srinivasan’s son-in-law, Gurunath Meiyappan, is being probed by the Mumbai Police for placing bets in IPL matches. Meiyappan, along with Pakistani umpire Asad Rauf and Bollywood actor Vindoo Dara Singh, has been named in the chargesheet filed by the Mumbai Police.
Asked what would be his first task after taking over, Srinivasan refused to divulge anything.
“I will tell about it later,” he said.
—With agency inputs
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