appeals get louder, but Srinivasan won't walk - Hindustan Times

BCCI chief N Srinivasan gheraoed by media persons as he comes to the BCCI head quarter in Churchgate, Mumbai. (HT Photo) The bouncers are coming thick and fast but the 'seasoned bat' that he is, Indian cricket board chief N Srinivasan doesn't seem to be in a mood to oblige the opposing team, which, at least on the face of it, is adding new members by the day. Some of the biggest names in country's cricket administration Wednesday joined the "go Srinivasan" chorus. The first off the block were two of his strong allies till now - the Twenty20 league chairman Rajeev Shukla and Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) vice-president Arun Jaitley. Soon, protesting voices were emanating from all the five zones. BCCI sources said Jaitley called up Srinivasan, whose two-year term ends in September, late on Tuesday and Wednesday morning again, urging the Chennai industrialist to step aside. "Jaitley and Rajeev Shukla had in fact met Srinivasan on the eve of final at Kolkata to impress upon him to step aside," said a senior BCCI official. Srinivasan, however, remained adamant and said he had done no wrong. He insisted that Shukla's comments were a mere reiteration of what he had said earlier. He also visited the BCCI headquarters during the day.   Referring to the BCCI probe into spot-fixing in the recently concluded T20 league, the sports ministry said, "As there is a conflict of interest in this inquiry, the BCCI president should tender his resignation on moral grounds, pending the outcome of the inquiry." Srinivasan's son-law Gurunath Meyiappan, until a few days ago the team principal of Chennai Super Kings, is under arrest for betting and ties with bookies. The scandal came to light after three Rajasthan Royal players were arrested on May 16 for alleged spot-fixing. Srinivasan's stubborn stance is based on the fact that he has numbers on his side. Of the 30 BCCI votes, his opponents will need 24 to oust him. There is also a stalemate of sorts, with the Maharashtra cricket lobby out to prove that not only Meiyappan, but even some players of Chennai Super Kings, owned by Srinivasan, are involved in fixing. While some were blunt in their demand, others let the words play. "Till the pendency of inquiry, we (he and Jaitley) have requested him to dissociate himself from the procedure. Dissociate, what it means is very clear. He will have to take a decision now. Mr Jaitley and I have suggested to him," said Shukla. Jagmohan Dalmiya, who hosted senior BCCI members including Srinivasan for a dinner on May 25, denied reports that he had advised board chief to stay put. "Instead of asking Srinivasan to resign, clean cricket," the former BCCI chief said. Demanding a home ministry probe into all the 75 matches played in the Season 6 of the T20 league, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar said,"… the government.. can interrogate anybody. They have legal sanction." "I don't want to say someone should go or someone should not go because I'm nobody. I would not have allowed this (fixing and betting) to happen," the former ICC and BCCI chief, who is known to have frosty ties with Srinivasan, said. Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association president and union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia was the first politician to ask Srinivasan to step down. The outspoken former India player, Kirti Azad, now a BJP MP, was not impressed that most bigwigs were not direct in their views. "…If you have such politician-like indecisiveness in cricket, this is the ridiculous levels to which discipline will go down to," he said in a Facebook post. via Top Stories - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNGzjHPMKyDPWlTgKZer4Elvu-8d-w&url=http://www.hindustantimes.com/Specials/Cricket/T20/Chunk-HT-UI-T20-SpotFixing/Spot-fixing-scandal-appeals-get-louder-but-Srinivasan-won-t-walk/SP-Article10-1067744.aspx

Put the internet to work for you. via Personal Recipe 2953939