NEW DELHI // Indian cricket was thrown into turmoil on Friday when the country’s highest court said four top officials, including the sport’s world chief Narayanaswami Srinivasan, may have been involved in corruption in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
They were indicted in a report submitted by a supreme court-appointed committee led by Justice Mukul Mudgal.
The court said Srinivasan, his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan, IPL chief executive Sundar Raman and Rajasthan Royals owner Raj Kundra were among those who were investigated by a panel it had appointed to look into allegations of wrongdoing.
“We have seen the report and it did suggest some misdemeanour on the part of certain individuals,” the two-judge bench said.
“Certain findings recorded by the committee are understood to have indicted some individuals whose conduct has been investigated.”
The court ordered that copies of the report be handed to these four officials and asked their lawyers to submit any objections within four days.
It also said the identities of the remaining nine people under investigation, most of whom are believed to be cricketers, should not be disclosed.
Their names were handed to the court in a sealed envelope in February.
A lawyer for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) told the court the body would delay its annual elections, scheduled for Thursday, in which Srinivasan was expected to be re-elected as president for a three-year term.
A guilty verdict against the officials could lead to a major shake-up in the lucrative Twenty20 tournament, where rules state that a franchise should be banned if any official is found to have brought the game to disrepute.
The next hearing in the case will be on November 24.
Meiyappan is the team principal of the Chennai Super Kings franchise, a team owned by Srinivasan’s India Cements company and captained by India skipper MS Dhoni.
The court had barred Srinivasan from carrying out his duties as BCCI president until it delivered its final verdict, but it did not stop him from heading the International Cricket Council.
The sixth IPL season last year was mired in controversy after police launched legal proceedings against several IPL officials and cricketers, including former Test fast bowler Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, for illegal betting and spot-fixing.
The players were arrested for allegedly giving away a minimum number of runs in exchange for money from bookies.
The spotlight focused on Srinivasan after Meiyappan was arrested by Mumbai police for allegedly being in touch with illegal bookmakers and passing team information to them.
Meiyappan was cleared by a BCCI panel last year, but a petition from the Cricket Association of Bihar led to the Mumbai high court declaring that panel “illegal and unconstitutional”.
The IPL, which began in 2008, features the world’s top players signed up for huge fees by companies and high-profile individuals in a mix of sport and entertainment.
International news organisations have suspended on-field coverage of matches hosted by the BCCI since 2012 after the board imposed restrictions on photo agencies.
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