BCCI annual general meeting March 2

Chennai, Feb 8:

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will hold its Annual General Meeting (AGM) March 2, it announced Sunday after arriving at a consensus in a working committee meeting here.

The Supreme Court Jan 22 barred sidelined BCCI president N. Srinivasan from contesting election to the presidency as long as he was involved in a “conflict of interest” situation as an owner of Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Chennai Super Kings (CSK). It gave the board six weeks to hold its elections.

The apex court found Srinivasan’s son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan, a CSK official, guilty of betting in the 2013 edition of the IPL.

The BCCI’s working committee decided to act as per legal advice after discussing the implications of the Supreme Court judgment, the country’s apex cricketing body said in a statement.

However, it is still unclear what course of action Srinivasan will take to try and overcome the “conflict of interest” that is a deterrent in his path of holding the twin positions of the BCCI presidency and co-ownership of CSK.

Srinivasan attended the meeting as president of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) and, reportedly, urged the BCCI members to file criminal cases against Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB) secretary Aditya Verma and the BCCI insiders who have allegedly backed him.

Verma is petitioner in the 2013 IPL betting and match fixing case and Srinivasan is believed to have directed his loyalists to identify the person who has provided Verma the financial muscle to contest the court battle against him.

Srinivasan’s BCCI presidential ambitions still remained unclear after the meeting but he has, reportedly, indicated to his loyalists that he won’t be the next BCCI chief — though no fresh names for the post have emerged from the meeting.

Srinivasan also didn’t identify anyone to be his successor should he choose to stay away from the presidential contest though names of former IPL boss Rajiv Shukla and interim BCCI president Shivlal Yadav continue to do the rounds.

The working committee also decided to increase the monthly pension for former cricketers by 50 percent in the meeting.

“It was decided to increase the monthly gratis scheme for all former cricketers by 50 percent subject to a maximum for Rs.50,000 per month effective from January this year,” BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel said in the statement. (IANS)