Firstpost: Ashish Magotra:
Monday, July 29, 2013.
In an
interview late last year, Board of Control for Cricket in India president N
Srinivasan spoke about the manner in which the organization is run.
“The BCCI is
not opaque. We are quite open to discussing how we function. I think a lot of
systems are in place today, we are cooperating in a very professional fashion,”
Srinivasan had said.
A lot of
water has passed under the bridge since then and perhaps it’s time for him to
take back those words in a very professional manner. Transparency seems to be
the last thing on his mind. At the moment, he is only concerned with
self-preservation and in this he has persevered.
The BCCI’s
probe panel has found no evidence against his team Chennai Super Kings in the
IPL spot-fixing and betting scandal. The probe also found no evidence against
Gurunath Meiyappan – who is apparently just a Chennai Super Kings share holder
– and Rajasthan Royals owner Raj Kundra in the match-fixing or spot-fixing
Indian Premier Scandal. According to CNN-IBN sources, they remained undecided
on the betting charges against Gurunath.
The report
will now be tabled before the IPL Governing Council on August 2 and strangely
enough, N Srinivasan could return as BCCI chief and chair the IPL Governing
Council meeting. Doesn’t it all strike you as very convenient?
“He himself
has stepped down and now as probe is already finished, given to the working
committee already, Srinivasan can come any time he wants to. He can chair the
meeting,” BCCI vice-president Niranjan Shah said when asked if Srinivasan can
chair the GC meeting in the capital.
Shah also
said, “If there is any substantial thing coming out later on in court of law or
in police investigation then I think the things will still stand, means, if
they are chargesheeted then, and if it is proven in the court of law, I think
automatically then they are out of BCCI.”
Then again,
we could ask what was the hurry to conclude the probe?
According to
CNN-IBN sources, one of the reasons give to exonerate Gurunath and Kundra was
that the Mumbai police refused to depose before the panel.
According to
another version of events, the Mumbai Police in its reply to the BCCI letter
asking them had to depose, had asked under which provision of law this
deposition would take place. The BCCI did not reply and then probe panel report
said that they were exonerating Gurunath and India Cement because they received
no evidence.
The irony
doesn’t end there. Srinivasan should have had nothing to do with appointing the
inquiry committee in the first place – but both the probe panel members, former
judges Chouta and Balasubramanian are from Chennai.
Then again,
if we give them the benefit of doubt – we still don’t know how they were
selected or what documents they examined. We don’t know the veracity of the
documents given to them by the BCCI because they cannot be examined, we don’t
know whether they managed to speak to Gurunath (who can’t leave Mumbai at
present), why were they not allowed to seek external evidence and why they
didn’t try to get the Mumbai Police to give them any evidence at all.
And on the
basis of all this, the panel has exonerated everyone.
The only
thing that the BCCI is transparent about is the way in which it covered up the
entire incident. Interim president Jagmohan Dalmiya has said that the probe
panel report will be made public in due course. But why not do it right away?
Srinivasan wanted to be back in the driver’s seat before the AGM in September
and this report will allow him to do exactly that.
And this is
why the BCCI needs to come under the RTI act. They ran an internal inquiry,
supplied the evidence and gave the accused a ‘clean chit.’ The people who
follow cricket deserve to know how this happened; they deserve to know the
truth.
The BCCI is
not a registered National Sports Federation (NSF) as it does not take
government grants and thus, the Board has argued, it cannot be brought under
RTI.
The Supreme
Court verdict in the 2005 Zee Telefilms case said writ petitions could be filed
against it under Article 226 of the Constitution as it performed “public
functions”. The Constitution bench said, “It is clear that when a private body
exercises public functions, the aggrieved person has a remedy not only under
the ordinary law but also under the Constitution, by way of a writ petition
under Article 226″.
And the same
is true for the BCCI as well. Let them run cricket as they do – that isn’t the
problem. The inner dealings of the BCCI, however, are another matter and that
is why the threat of the RTI act might bring about a real clean up of the
organization. It could be the sword of Damocles that will constantly hang over
their heads and force them to do the right thing.
The probe
panel was supposed to help the BCCI restore credibility but as things stand, it
has only made things worse. Anyone who has lost anything precious will tell you
that it is only when you lose it, that you really learn to value it. The BCCI
has abused its independence. It’s time for them to lose it.