Supreme Court may strike down BCCI rule creating anomalous situation

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that it had no panacea for all that ails the Board of Control for Cricket in India, but said that it would address the anomalous situation created by a decision taken by the BCCI in 2008 to allow administrators to have stakes in IPL teams.

“You have painted a very dismal picture… We can’t do an all-embracing exercise to redeem the game. We can’t give a panacea for all ills,” a two-judge bench, comprising justices TS Thakur and FMI Kalifullah, said after hearing lawyer and Aam Aadmi Party leader Rahul Mehra.

Mehra, appearing for a former Andhra Ranji trophy player, claimed that the BCCI had no formal recognition from the government.

He cited its role in stalling legislative changes that would ensure more accountability in its functioning and refusing to probe allegations of match fixing that first surfaced more than a decade ago. The bench refused to embark on the exercise of cleaning up the cash-rich BCCI, putting it off for a more appropriate time and place.

The bench, however, said that it would not hesitate to strike down a BCCI rule that was specifically changed to allow BCCI chief N Srinivasan to have a stake in the India Cements-owned Chennai Super Kings, thereby eliminating any conflict of interest situations it may create later.

Srinivasan runs India Cements.

The BCCI had changed rule 6.2.4 of its bye-laws to permit administrators to hold commercial interests in IPL or Champions League.

This had created a serious conflict of interest that prevented Srinivasan from acting against son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan after betting allegations were made against him.