Cricket Association of Bihar urges SC to make Mudgal committee report public

Harish Salve

New Delhi, 25 NOV (IANS) The Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB) on Tuesday urged the Supreme Court to make the entire report of the Mudgal Commission in connection with the betting and spot-fixing case in 2013 Indian Premier league (IPL) public so that people could identify the villains hiding behind the curtains.

Counsel Harish Salve, appearing for CAB, asked the Supreme Court to disclose the full Mudgal committee report while also producing in the court IPL accreditation documents that clearly shows Gurunath Meiyappan as the Team Principal of Chennai Super Kings (CSK). However, his father-in-law, N. Srinivasan had in the past said that Meiyappan is merely a "cricket enthusiast" and has nothing to do with CSK.

The petitioner in the case, CAB secretary Aditya Verma, said he was looking forward for the report to be made public.

"In the court today, the BCCI opposed our move to make the report public. If they have nothing to fear about, then why they are afraid of putting the report in the public domain," Verma said.

"In the court today, we were able to sufficiently establish that Srinivasan was only trying to protect the interest of CSK and his son-in-law. Our counsel has submitted documentary evidence to prove Srinivasan's son-in-law Maiyappan was a team official. It is a matter of shame that he has been reported by the Mudgal Commission for indulging in betting," Verma added.

The Supreme Court on Monday had also asked Srinivasan to address the question of 'conflict of interest' as head of the BCCI and also CSK, putting his future as a cricket administrator in jeopardy, while telling the current ICC chairman that he should not consider findings of the Mudgal report as a clean chit.