Former Sri Lanka captain and ex-ICC Director Arjuna Ranatunga has expressed his disappointment that no objections were raised against the presence of sidelined President of BCCI N. Srinivasan at a recent International Cricket Council meeting.
India’s Supreme Court has suspended Srinivasan from functioning as the President of BCCI, so that a fair probe is conducted on the spot fixing allegations during the last IPL. Srinivasan’s Indian Cements owns IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings, one of the franchises under the spotlight following the spot fixing scandal. Srinivasan is also under probe by the Indian Supreme Court for amending the BCCI constitution so that the path was cleared for him to own an IPL franchise while holding position in the BCCI.
Srinivasan attended the last ICC meeting in Dubai as BCCI ‘representative’ and there were no objections from the ICC hierarchy that keeps talking on the sport maintain a clean image.
“I was very surprised that the ICC hierarchy didn’t object to Srinivasan’s presence at the ICC meeting,” Ranatunga told The Island.
“When India’s Supreme Court is showing so much concern to safeguard the reputation of the game, it’s disappointing to see the ICC not taking any serious measures,” Ranatunga added.
Srinivasan is set to take over as the Chairman of ICC in June after the constitutional changes to the governance of the game were agreed by member boards early this year.
“The ICC constitutions clearly states that ICC Directors should not harm the public image of the ICC and I am surprised why they have not raised objections over Srinivasan’s presence at the ICC meeting,” Ranatunga added.
“The Indian Supreme Court has prohibited any employees of India Cements other than commentators and players from performing any duties for the BCCI. I think the order applies for Srinivasan as well as he is the Managing Director of India Cements.”
“The ICC has an Ethics Committee and an Anti Corruption and Security arm that incurs a lot of cost. If these bodies are not raising objections they are failing in their duties. Why are they only keeping players who have tarnished the image of the game and not the administrators?” Ranatunga went onto add.
