Ex-BCCI chief moves apex court against office bearers stake in IPL

Chennai, May 8 (ANI): Former Board of Control for Cricket in India President A C Muthaiah has filed a case against present BCCI Secretary N Srinvasan and moved the apex court against office bearers holding stake in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

“My whole case is that I have been saying there is conflict of interest. Srinivasan has violated and there is conflict of interest. According to our rules, no administrator can have any commercial interest. Now that is being amended, so I have challenged the amendment of the rule,” said Muthaiah.

“Prior to the rules were amended, the office-bearers of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) were not allowed to engage in activities that conflicted with its commercial interests,” he added.

The noted industrialist has challenged the decision of the single-judge bench of the Madras High Court that had earlier dismissed his plea.

“When I filed the case it was only against Srinivasan. Now, I find that Pandora’s box is opened so there are so many, who have fallen in this trap of the conflict of interest so others also are responsible,” said Muthaiah.

He has also challenged the legality of the April 26 meeting of the Governing Council of the IPL that suspended its chairman Lalit Modi, accused of financial irregularities.

“There should be an independent probe, all the interested members should be out of both the BCCI and the IPL. When there is an independent member they will be able to take bold decisions. When I was the president, I took a bold decision against match fixing,” said Muthaiah.

“I was able to do it because I was quiet independent I was not involved with any player or any team or anything like that,” he added.

Srinivasan is the Managing Director and Vice Chairman of India Cements Limited that owns Chennai Super Kings in the IPL.

Tax authorities are probing the three-year-old IPL, valued at an estimated 4.1 billion dollars, after Shashi Tharoor resigned from the Union Council of Ministers being accused of using his influence in the formation of a newly franchised Kochi IPL team from Kerala. (ANI)