N Srinivasan’s bid to act the judge, jury and exonerator in the IPL spot-fixing probe case has been sufficiently squashed by the Supreme Court. In a first, the top court has asked a sitting president of BCCI to step down so that procedural interferences and obfuscations are avoided in the investigation. The court’s observations about Srini and the board have aptly lifted the veil on any doubt whatsoever that the probe would not be tampered by the president, whose son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan has been accused of partaking in the spot-fixing case in the sixth edition of the Indian Premier League, a tournament which has become synonymous with sleaze, unmerited spotlight and black money in the wider public sphere. Srinivasan, despite the charges against G Meiyappan, has muscled his way back to the headship of the world’s richest cricketing board, even though many have raised eyebrows and expressed serious reservations about the fairness of future investigations into the case. The spot- and match-fixing racketeering, a deeply corrupt and wide-ranging nexus that exists far beyond Indian shores, has a name too many, and if the authorities are at all serious about cleaning up the muck that is the BCCI, it must not stop with just Srinivasan himself.
Supreme Court’s observation came in the light of the report that was handed down by the Mukul Mudgal committee in a sealed envelope, but which can be anticipated, given the gravity of the charges against Meiyappan and the massive circuit of the spot-fixing scam. It is not enough to suspend players for life, who are anyway small cogs in a gigantic wheel of corruption and money laundering. The top bosses of India’s sporting extravaganza are themselves the orchestrators of the crimes that take place, pretty much under their supervision, and they are the ones who reap the harvest from the cricketing industry and all its illicit operations happening on the sidelines of the game. Since the game is only tip of the iceberg, it won’t untrue to say that overlords of the illegal sport betting industry are none other than the captains that man the IPL ship – in this case, N Srinivasan himself.
Supreme Court’s observation came in the light of the report that was handed down by the Mukul Mudgal committee in a sealed envelope, but which can be anticipated, given the gravity of the charges against Meiyappan and the massive circuit of the spot-fixing scam. It is not enough to suspend players for life, who are anyway small cogs in a gigantic wheel of corruption and money laundering. The top bosses of India’s sporting extravaganza are themselves the orchestrators of the crimes that take place, pretty much under their supervision, and they are the ones who reap the harvest from the cricketing industry and all its illicit operations happening on the sidelines of the game. Since the game is only tip of the iceberg, it won’t untrue to say that overlords of the illegal sport betting industry are none other than the captains that man the IPL ship – in this case, N Srinivasan himself.