The BCCI has formed a working group to study the Lodha panel’s judgment concerning to the IPL corruption scandal and asked it to present its conclusion in about duration of six weeks. Former Indian Captain and IPL Governing Council member Sourav Ganguly has been included in the recently formed BCCI Working Group to study the Lodha report and plan the way ahead for the tournament. The working group constituted by IPL Chairman Rajeev Shukla also features BCCI Secretary Anurag Thakur, Aniruddh Chaudhary and the board’s legal counselor, Ushanath Banerjee.
BCCI appoint working committee to discuss IPL scandal
The BCCI press release after the meeting stated the working group would “study this verdict, in consultation with all our key advisors and explore all the possible measures to be adopted, with an objective to protect the interests of all the stakeholders involved. This group will work within a time bound period of six weeks and report their recommendations to the IPL GC, which will deliberate and share their views with the working committee of the BCCI, for further action.”
IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla has said the BCCI had accepted the Lodha Committee’s suspension of the owners of the Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals franchises and there will not be any vacillation”.
“The order is accepted, now we are in the process of implementing it,” he told PTI. “For that we have formed a working group and that group has been given six weeks’ time to submit its recommendations.”
Shukla also said the IPL would have at least eight sides, and there will be no way they will go ahead with fewer teams than that. He stated, “IPL will be held with a minimum of eight teams. There will be no change in that. How we will proceed will be recommended by the working group, which will have discussions with all the stakeholders like the sponsors, broadcasters, franchisees and state associations. The procedures that we adopt will therefore be approved by our legal expert that is why we need some time to give the recommendations. There is a group which believes that a BCCI-appointed management team can run CSK and RR for a period of two years. Credible people can be selected for that job so that the question of conflict of interest does not arise. Another option is that we invite new bids for the two teams to ensure that the league is an eight-team affair. After two years when CSK and RR complete their suspension period, we will have 10 teams. We will consider all the options.”
According to various sources, Rajiv Shukla’s suggestion of the BCCI autonomously operating the two suspended franchises for two years was offered to the committee and was backed by an existing office bearer who anticipated that leading monetary solutions firms could be involved in running the teams on the board’s behalf. An ex- cricketer on the governing council, who had advocated the BCCI not to put down the players who contributed to the IPL brand name in a wobble, reportedly said that individuals like Rahul Dravid and MS Dhoni are competent of running teams, if necessary, devoid of an outsider’s support.
The officials who took part in the meeting were also told about a proposal from former BCCI joint secretary MP Pandove, over the possibility of inviting tenders for two teams and the prospect of a having ten-team IPL from 2018, once the suspension period is over.
CSK and RR were earlier suspended for two years by the Supreme Court-appointed Lodha panel as a penalty for betting activities of their owners Gurunath Meiyappan and Raj Kundra during the 2013 season. Ever since the decision, there has been wide-ranged conjecture about the future of the competition and the two teams which have been suspended.
