BCCI rubbishes English daily report on Raina’s bookie link

MUMBAI - Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary N. Srinivasan on Sunday rubbished a London Sunday Times report that suggested that the BCCI has been keeping quiet on cricketer Suresh Raina accompanying a woman allegedly linked to bookies during the Sri Lankan tour.

He described the charge as “baseless and false”, saying that she was Raina’s agent.

Srinivasan’s reaction came in the wake of the London Sunday Times claiming that ICC’s ACSU was probing why the BCCI was keeping quiet about a report forwarded by the Sri Lankan Cricket Board.

“The BCCI has just learnt that several media outlets are claiming that Sri Lanka Cricket had submitted a report on Suresh Raina to it, and that no action was taken by the Board on the same. The BCCI would like to clarify that it has received no such report from SLC. The claims being made by a section of the media are totally baseless and false,” he said.

BCCI spokesperson Rajiv Shukla also said the woman was Raina’s agent.

“That is untrue and baseless. It’s all rubbish. No complaint had ever come to BCCI from either the ICC or SLC. BCCI had never received any complaint on this matter. Actually, the lady is Raina’s agent,” Shukla said.

The investigation, led by ACSU head Ravi Sawani is believed to be looking into why the SLC shared the report with the BCCI first when under ICC anti-corruption rules it should have gone straight to the world governing body, the newspaper said quoting unnamed ICC sources. (ANI)