A Supreme Court panel investigating a match-fixing scandal in the Indian Premier League said on Monday that Board of Control for Cricket in India President N. Srinivasan's son-in-law "was guilty of illegal betting on games," according to the AFP. The three-member panel, headed by retired judge Mukul Mudgal, said that the allegations of fixing against Chennai Super Kings Owner Gurunath Meiyappan "required further investigation." The panel "spent four months interacting with players, IPL team owners, police, journalists, anti-corruption unit personnel and various other stakeholders" (AFP, 2/10). The PTI reported it is "a major embarrassment" to Srinivasan and raised questions over the status of the Chennai Super Kings. A report of the three-member committee headed by Mudgal said, "The role of Gurunath Meiyappan in Chennai Super Kings as the team official stands proved and the allegations of betting and passing of information against Meiyappan stand proved. However, the allegations of fixing require further investigation" (PTI, 2/10). The AFP reported Meiyappan "was the team principal of Chennai Super Kings, an IPL franchise owned by Srinivasan's India Cements company and captained by national skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni." The panel "dismissed Srinivasan's claim that Meiyappan was merely a cricket enthusiast, saying he was the face of the franchise." A report said that allegations of betting and spot-fixing against Rajasthan Royals' Owner Raj Kundra "must be further investigated" (AFP, 2/10).
AUCTION TO CONTINUE: In New Dehli, Surajeet Dasgupta wrote "the development has cast a shadow on the world’s richest cricket property," which raked in more than Rs 360 crore ($58M) for the BCCI last year. The BCCI "put up a brave front and said the auctions would go on as planned." BCCI VP Rajeev Shukla said, "The auction will continue as planned as the committee has not directed to stop it. The betting probe will continue alongside and the law will take its own course." Opinion is divided on whether the move will jeopardize the IPL this year "as it had threatened to towards the end of the previous season when allegations of match fixing and betting came to the fore" (Indian BUSINESS STANDARD, 2/10). The PTI reported facing heat over the Supreme Court-appointed committee's report, Kundra on Monday said that "he will give up shares in the IPL team if any wrongdoing was found on his part." Kundra: "If an iota of wrongdoing is found from my side I will give up my share" (PTI, 2/10). The PTI also reported "in a sensational claim," two former presidents of the BCCI told the committee that matches in the IPL "were fixed." The committee's report said, "The Committee would like to state there is a general perception amongst many persons who deposed before the panel that matches involving Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and other IPL teams were fixed and required through investigation." Four BCCI ex-chiefs, A.C. Muthiah, I.S. Bindra, Jagmohan Dalmiya and Shashank Manohar, "had deposed before the three-member committee, formed late last year to probe charges of betting and spot-fixing in IPL, among other issues." The report "does not identify which two from this quartet made the sensational claim about matches being fixed in the lucrative league" (PTI, 2/10).
PLAYERS NAMED: The PTI reported six prominent "Indian capped" players, including one who is part of the current team, "are likely to face the heat for their alleged roles in fixing scandal with their names cropping up in the report filed." Bindra had also stated that "he knew two former reputed Indian players who were allegedly involved in match fixing." However, names of the players, whose roles are being probed, "have been given to the apex court in a sealed cover" (PTI, 2/10).
