M A I N   N E W S

Pressure mounts on Srini as two key BCCI members quit
Board on the back foot over ICC ‘warning’ to Meiyappan on bookies

Mumbai/New Delhi, May 31
In a severe blow to BCCI president N Srinivasan, two top board officials today resigned piling more pressure on him to step down in the wake of the spot-fixing scandal.

BCCI secretary Sanjay Jagdale and treasurer Ajay Shirke sent their resignations to Srinivasan saying they were “deeply hurt” by recent developments in cricket.

Bowing to intense pressure, Srinivasan convened an emergency working committee meeting hours after information spilled out that the ICC had warned his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan to keep away from bookies at the start of IPL 6.

Jagdale, who is also a member of the three-member inquiry commission to go into allegations against CSK team principal Gurunath Meiyappan and CSK franchise owner India Cements, also opted out of the inquiry committee.

“I have expressed my inability to join the probe,” Jagdale said when asked if he would continue to be on the panel that has two retired judges on it. This came amid speculations that joint secretary Anurag Thakur and five vice-presidents would also put in their papers by tomorrow.

The five vice-presidents are Arun Jaitley (North), Niranjan Shah (West), Sudhir Dabir (Central), Chitrak Mitra (East) and Shivlal Yadav (South). But Mitra denied that he was planning to quit. Earlier in the day, Jagdale, Shirke and Anurag Thakur called Srinivasan and asked him to announce an emergency meeting of the working committee by evening failing which they would quit.

Srinivasan later decided to convene the meeting of the board’s all-powerful working committee to discuss the current crisis.

More damning information has come from police officials interrogating Gurunath Meiyappan, as he has told them that he had been warned by the ICC to keep away from bookies at the start of IPL 6, say sources.

Mumbai Police sources claimed Gurunath told investigators that he was warned by officials of the anti-corruption unit to keep away from suspicious characters.

“Be careful, I have been warned,” Meiyappan had told actor Vindoo, who is also under arrest in the case.

This is part of Meiyappan’s statement to the crime branch, the source said, adding Vindoo had corroborated it.

The source declined to reveal the name of the Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU) official and said they were yet to corroborate it with the ICC.

Board meet on June 8

• Members of BCCI’s working committee will meet on June 8 to discuss the crisis arising out of betting and spot-fixing in the IPL
• The committee has no powers to oust Srinivasan (pic); a special general body meeting has to be convened to vote him out of office
• There are also reports that all five BCCI vice-presidents — Niranjan Shah (west zone), Sudhir Dabir (central), Chitrak Mitra (east), Arun Jaitley (north) and N. Shivlal Yadav (south) — will also resign

‘Deeply hurt’