Ipl Scam: Judges Topple Kings, Royals

[manjunath455]

NEW DELHI: In a strong message to the men who run Indian cricket to keep their nose and the game of cricket clean, the Supreme Court-appointed Justice Lodha Committee on Tuesday suspended for two years the franchise owners of IPL teams, Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals, for bringing the game into disrepute.

For their involvement in betting, the committee also banned for life Raj Kundra, former co-owner of RR, and Gurunath Meiyappan, former "team principal" of CSK and son-in-law of former BCCI chief N Srinivasan, from any role in cricket.

The teams cannot continue with the same names for the ban period, which means there will be no CSK or RR in the 2016 and 2017 edition of IPL. However, they can still play in the IPL under different ownerships, and different names, if they are sold and the sales are confirmed by the IPL's governing council.


A rattled BCCI has called a meeting of IPL governing council on July 19 (Sunday) in Mumbai to take stock of this scathing order and assess its implications for the popular tournament.

At a later date, the committee will announce its decision on whether punitive action also needs to be taken against IPL COO Sundar Raman, the man who runs the IPL tournament. "About Sundar Raman, we examined the material about him and we believe it requires further investigation. Vivek Priyadarshi has been appointed by the SC to look into it and he is examining the matter. We are awaiting his report. After that we will decide what will be the action," Justice Lodha said.

In its 59-page order, the committee said: "In India, cricket is not any other game of sporting activity; it is a passion for millions of people. It is really hard to measure the harm these acts of team officials have caused to sports generally and the game of cricket, in particular."

Sources in CSK said they were leaning towards filing an appeal to try and obtain a stay order. In order to appeal, CSK or RR would have to go to the bench of the apex court that appointed the Lodha panel. The bench had said the panel's orders on the quantum of punishment would be binding, subject to judicial redress.

The committee said it had considered the impact of the verdict on players, with Justice Lodha, a former chief justice of the Supreme Court, saying, "Players will not be attached to a franchisee which has been suspended." In other words, the judge drew a distinction between the players and the teams, while clearing them to play of other teams.

The order was scathing: "If the reputation and image of the sport are lost, what remains? Disrepute has been brought to cricket, the BCCI and the IPL to such an extent that doubts abound in the public whether the game is clean or not." The sharp rebuke comes as a kick in the teeth for both BCCI and the franchises, which spent the last two years dragging their feet on the 2013 IPL spot-fixing scandal.

[raj_hyd]

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