Unfazed by a Bombay high court order which declared the Board of Control for Cricket in India's probe into the Indian Premier League spot-fixing scandal "illegal," a "defiant" N. Srinivasan will chair the working committee on Friday, signaling his formal return to the top post despite the furore, according to the PTI. The meeting will mark Srinivasan's return to the president's post "after nearly two months since he stepped aside pending an internal inquiry into the spot-fixing scandal which rocked the sixth edition of the IPL." BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel made it clear that Srinivasan will chair the meeting as he has resumed his duty as the president, "putting an end to the suspense over who will chair the conclave which will discuss all the legal implications of the high court order and chalk out a future course of action." Patel said, "He (Srinivasan) is the BCCI chief and he has already started working. There is no confusion as to who will chair tomorrow's working committee meeting. Nobody till now has forced Mr. Srinivasan to resign." Srinivasan "refused to talk to the media" on his arrival at the airport. Srinivasan: "Will you allow me to go to my car ... I am entitled to go, allow me to go. I just got hit by this camera. You cannot hit me like this with the camera. It's not ok with me" (PTI, 8/1). The PTI also reported the Cricket Association of Bihar "threatened to move court again" in the event of Srinivasan chairing the Working Committee meeting. Cricket Association of Bihar Secretary Aditya Verma said, "The court has categorically termed the two-member probe set up by him as illegal. He has no authority to chair the working committee meeting. In case he does, we will move petition against him. It will be a clear violation of the court orders." Verma alleged that an important BCCI functionary "had contacted him to settle the matter out of court and even threatened him" (PTI, 8/1). THE HINDU reported a Public Interest Litigation in the Allahabad High Court "has challenged the recommendations" made by the BCCI for sports awards this year. The PIL "was filed in the Lucknow Bench by social activist Nutan Thakur and IPS officer Amitabh Thakur." The petitions said that only the National Sports Federation can make recommendations for the national sports awards. The BCCI "is not one of the 51 NSFs recognized by the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs" (THE HINDU, 8/1).
ROUND TWO: The PTI reported BCCI VP Niranjan Shah on Thursday became the first senior official to openly call for a fresh probe into the IPL spot-fixing scandal, saying such a step was needed as the Board's "image has really gone down." Shah said that "it was imperative to do something to improve the image of the Board, taking into account the recent Bombay High court order." Shah: "We must do something to improve Board's image because cricket is very important" (PTI, 8/1). In Mumbai, Neeraj Chauhan wrote Delhi Police have alleged that the Int'l Cricket Council knew about bookies meeting int'l cricketers and inducing them for spot-fixing, "but did not do much." Delhi Police's chargesheet in the IPL spot-fixing scandal suggests that several bookies not only tried to "corrupt" some players during World Cup 2011, "but were also seen with several international players in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka a few times by ICC's Anti-Corruption Unit" (TIMES OF INDIA, 8/1).
