N Srinivasan and the original sin - The conflict of interest

Two days ago, no sooner was Gurunath Meiyappan arrested by the Mumbai cops for his alleged role in betting and/or match/spot-fixing, the electronic media went into a 24-hour overdrive in trying to force the resignation of his father-in-law-cum-BCCI president Narayanaswamy Srinivasan.

Cricket ‘pundits’ on at least two English news channels, which I was watching, pompously claimed that they had been talking to BCCI members and the majority of them wanted the Tam-Brahm strongman to go.

It was left to sports activist-lawyer Rahul Mehra to puncture those delusions on one of the TV channels a few hours later by pointing out that not a single BCCI official had publicly called for Srinivasan’s exit. Not even president-in-waiting Arun Jaitley or IPL commissioner Rajiv Shukla or ex-chief honcho Sharad Pawar or Shashank Manohar, heavyweight politicians, who were said to be gunning for Srini’s head.

For that matter, no esteemed cricketer or cricket official (barring a handful of exceptions like Kirti Azad, former BCCI secretary Jaywant Lele and Srinivasan’s bitter rivals like Lalit Modi and former BCCI chief A C Mutthiah etc.) had called for Srinivasan’s exit, including our esteemed cricket pundits who hold forth their opinion on every aspect of the game. Some may be restrained by their contractual obligations with the BCCI, but they all know for sure which side of the bread is buttered.

And so, yesterday’s denouement in Kolkata where the embattled BCCI supremo emerged with all his feathers intact came as no surprise.

One cricket politician, who demands the resignation of every other minister and even the Prime Minister on national television almost every other day for the sins of commission and omission of the UPA government, was conspicuous by his public silence on the subject of Srinivasan. Partners in crime, one would like to believe!

The issue of Srinivasan’s ‘conflict of interest’ - how he can be both Chennai Super Kings owner and top BCCI official – has again been revived in view of the current controversy. The issue is before a bench of the Supreme Court which is hearing a petition filed by Mutthiah against his former protégé. According to a report in the Daily Mail last month, Mutthiah has cited 12 more instances of ‘conflict of interest’ against Srinivasan, pointing out that the latter at times wore up to four different hats – BCCI secretary/president, member of the IPL governing council, Tamil Nadu Cricket Association president and vice president & managing director of India Cements.

One must revisit the issue and understand how the original sin was committed. Srinivasan’s company was allowed to bid for an IPL team when he was the treasurer of the BCCI and not yet the undisputed strongman that he is today. There was a possible trade-off there in that he had aligned with the Pawar faction to dislodge the then all powerful Jagmohan Dalmiya faction from power and hence became part of the ruling clique. In September 2008, the apex body for cricket went so far as to amend its Clause 6.2.4 which stated that “no administrator of BCCI could have had, directly or indirectly, any commercial interest in the matches or events conducted by the cricket board” to exclude “IPL, Champions League and Twenty20″ from its purview.

N Srinivasan (left) with Sharad Pawar and Niranjan Shah

Why did the 30-odd BCCI members, or at least the vast majority, all fall in line to give Srinivasan an escape route? Was it because Lalit Modi, then the BCCI vice-president, was himself alleged to have stakes in at least three IPL teams either directly or through his relatives? Were there other bigwigs behind any of these bids? A couple of years ago, the Enforcement Directorate was prompted to probe the suspicious foreign investments in certain IPL franchises. Will further revelations on this score be kept under the lid?

Since almost everybody has his hand in the cookie jar and those who don’t are flung a few sops now and then, nobody wants to bell the cat. No wonder, Srinivasan’s sun will possibly continue to shine irrespective of the dark clouds that are currently swirling around his head. The BCCI appointed committee to probe the alleged spot-fixing scam of three Rajasthan Royals players will also inquire into Meiyappan’s relationship with the Chennai Super Kings franchise. As Srinivasan would like us to believe, he is merely an “honorary member” of the team or a “cricket enthusiast” who sometimes travelled with the team despite earlier evidence to the contrary.

Gurunath Meiyappan (2nd from right) attending a press conference for the 2012 IPL auction

Incidentally, the very same sports politicians have spread their tentacles across quite a few disciplines. Srinivasan is not only president of the BCCI but also chief of the All India Chess Federation (he was sent a notice by the sports ministry, informing him that he cannot be chief of more than one sports federation at the same time) and Tamil Nadu Golf Association. Jaitley and Shukla are on the board of the Hockey India League and enthusiastic backers of Hockey India secretary general Narendar Batra, who is also the treasurer of the Delhi & Districts Cricket Association. And so the rigmarole continues.

Srinivasan is a person said to be loyal to his friends but vengeful against his perceived enemies. He will be gone from the BCCI come September, or at the most after a third year in office. But we may have to endure him and others of his ilk in other sports for an indefinite length of time.