The Indian Supreme Court on Tuesday denied former Board of Control for Cricket in India President N. Srinivasan legroom for a comeback to BCCI management by dismissing the board's plea for review of its Jan. 22 order "disqualifying persons with commercial interest in cricket from being part of the administration," according to the TIMES OF INDIA. The rejection of the plea means the Supreme Court did not lift the suspense over the bar on Srinivasan from board meetings. Srinivasan's eligibility to attend BCCI meetings "will be heard" by the SC on Monday. BCCI Secretary Anurag Thakur said that Srinivasan is ineligible to attend Sunday's meeting, which will choose the next BCCI president, "but can cast his vote at the SGM in case there is an election" (TIMES OF INDIA, 9/30). The PTI reported Srinivasan "moved the Supreme Court" accusing Thakur of committing an offense of perjury before the top court for making "plethora" of "misleading" statements against him, including that he had "barged" into a meeting of the cricket board's working committee in Kolkata on Aug. 28. Srinivasan sought action under Sections 193 (punishment for false evidence) and 209 (dishonestly making false claim in court) of the IPC against Thakur, "for his affidavit in which he has also referred to the issue of conflict of interest by mentioning the contents of of the India Cements Shareholders Trust including that Srinivasan was the trustee." Srinivasan claimed that "as he was sitting in the meeting and the then President had arrived 30 minutes late and the meeting adjourned sine die without any discussion." Therefore "it would be wrong to suggest that he had barged into the meeting" (PTI, 9/30). In a separate article, the PTI reported in "another embarrassing incident," the BCCI barred 22 cricketers of Delhi & Districts Cricket Association from taking part in the age-group cricket tournaments "as there are allegations of age-fudging against them." What "is more embarrassing is the fact that the names include Nitish Rana and Pratyush Singh -- two players who have already played for senior Delhi team in limited overs and Rana, in fact, is also a part of the current Delhi Ranji team, which is in Jaipur for the opening game against Rajasthan." While Professor Ratnakar Shetty's "terse answer" to an enquiry was "Go and ask DDCA," State Association President Sneh Prakash Bansal admitted that BCCI "has indeed told them not to select the boys with disputed age certificates in age-group teams" (FIRST POST, 9/30).
