IPL Spot-Fixing: Sports Ministry asks Srinivasan to step down

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: The pressure on BCCI chief Ministry N Srinivasan to resign kept mounting as the Ministry of Sports has asked him to step down on moral grounds. “As there is a conflict on interest, Srinivasan should tender his resignation on moral grounds, pending the outcome of the inquiry,” the Sports Ministry said in a press release. "The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports is in favour of a law to curb malpractices in all sports. It will send its comments on the bill drafted by the Law Ministry, and is looking forward to working with the Law Ministry and other stakeholders for the development of a comprehensive law against match and spot-fixing," the statement read. The Ministry, meanwhile, rejected reports that it was in favour of legalising betting to curb corruption in sports. "The Ministry of Sports has also observed that a section of the Media has reported that it is in favour of a law regularising betting in the sporting events in the country. "The Ministry clarifies that betting is a State Subject and cannot be part of a Central law. The Ministry has made no recommendations to regularise betting to the Law Ministry or to any other organisation," it said. The press release came hours after IPL chairman and top BCCI functionary Rajeev Shukla said that he and Arun Jaitley have asked Srinivasan to step down as the BCCI president till probe, which looks into the alleged involvement of his son-in-law in betting and spot-fixing, is over . He, however, made it clear that it is upto Srinivasan to decide whether he wants to quit or not as he is the elected president of the board. Shukla, who met BCCI vice-president Arun Jaitley today, also said that they would immediately act on the recommendations made by the three-member probe committee. "Findings of the commission will not be ratified by the BCCI. It will be implemented straightaway", Shukla told reporters. The Board of Control for Cricket in India had on Tuesday constituted a three-man inquiry commission including two retired High Court judges to go into allegations against Gurunath Meiyappan — the son-in-law of BCCI chief N. Srinivasan — who has been arrested on charges of betting on IPL VI matches. Justice T Jayaram Chouta, former Judge of the Karnataka and Madras High Courts, Justice R. Balasubramanian, former Judge of the Madras High Court, and BCCI secretary Sanjay Jagdale are members of the Commission, which will also go into the allegations against three players of the Rajasthan Royals team and its franchise as well as the Chennai Super Kings, of which Meiyappan was the Team Principal. Earlier on Tuesday, Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia became the first BCCI office-bearer to openly call for president N. Srinivasan’s resignation in the wake of the spot-fixing scandal and said the Board should take entire responsibility for the fiasco. While Scindia wanted Srinivasan to stay out of office until after the case of his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan was decided, another Union Minister and senior Board functionary Farooq Abdullah said there was no reason for the beleaguered president to quit. Meanwhile, a defiant and combative BCCI President N Srinivasan, who decided to hang on to his position despite the IPL spot-fixing scandal, had on Monday said his resignation is being sought only by a "hounding media". Srinivasan, whose son-in-law and Chennai Super Kings CEO Gurunath Meiyappan has been arrested for alleged involvement in betting, were booed by the Eden Gardens' crowd during the presentation ceremony of the IPL 6 final on Sunday.