N Srinivasan’s options are limited. Four to be precise. That’s right. The same Srinivasan who refused to buckle down on Monday has as less as four options that have been spelt out by the Supreme Court in connection with the betting and spot fixing scam that rocked the IPL in particular and Indian cricket in general. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court was cut and dry — either follow the four options given by us, or device a new way in which Meiyappan can be taken to task and cricket can be cleaned.
The four options that Srinivasan and Co. can work around are:
1. Srinivasan could withdraw from the BCCI fold, and the elections could carry on without him.
2. There should be put in place a new committee that should be formed to take action against those named by the Mudgal panel
3 BCCI governing council should take action
4 Mudgal panel should take action
As soon as these options were given to Srinivasan’s counsel wanted to know if any further options would be allowed, to which the bench, comprising of Justice T S Thakur and Justice Fakkir Mohamed Ibrahim Kalifulla said Srinivasan and Co had time till evening to come up with feasible options which would be considered.
Earlier on Monday, the Supreme Curt bench had asked Srinivasan why does he feel that owning a team in the IPL and also heading the BCCI isn’t a conflict of interest in any way. Kapil Sibal, Srinivasan’s counsel, argued on his behalf, saying it wasn’t a problem when a conflict of interest existed; it mattered only when the interest was perpetrating the interest.
The court refused to take that as an argument and declared loud and clear that not just should Gurunath Meiyappan be punished for what he done, but also the fact that Srinivasan should stay away from that business.
Incidentally, this is the first time that Srinivasan looked perturbed. If the Supreme Court tightens the screws, a comeback would look impossible. Overall, it’s left for time to tell whether this will be a new chapter in Indian cricket, or whether it will be the same old story of stretching it too much for the whole matter to lose steam.