The IPL Probe: Project cover-up

Clearly, it was all a big misunderstanding. Rajiv Shukla the IPL Chairman, Sanjay Jagdale the BCCI Secretary and Ajay Shirke the BCCI Treasurer resigned all at once because they were looking to emulate Rod Marsh, Dennis Lillee and Greg Chappell. Or because they never liked the coffee.

Laughs, laughs everywhere… IPL Scandal buried!

Take your pick; it certainly wasn’t because of the IPL corruption scandal. Niranjan Shah, BCCI Vice-President, told us as much: ‘There is no evidence of any wrongdoing found by the judges against Raj Kundra, India Cements and Rajasthan Royals’. There there. All better. Shame on all of us, making such a fuss over so trivial a matter.

Let us talk about those harbingers of justice, truth and fidelity – the fabled internal three-man panel set up by the BCCI. Actually, there were only two of them; after Sanjay Jagdale resigned, the panel was not disbanded, nor was he replaced. They probably never had the time. Or money. Or inclination to do so.

At least two people from the IPL Governing Council did not know how or when the panel was constituted. Two more were asked for their consent over the phone before they knew what was happening. That’s four out of eight members of the IPL Governing Council who were kept in the dark.

Members in name only; surely the point of a council is to deliberate and discuss together? They probably didn’t want to bore them. How very considerate.

But let us not fret; this panel was comprised of Justice T Jayaram Chouta, a former judge of the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu High Courts, and Justice R Balasubramanian, former judge of the Tamil Nadu High Court. They got judges. That makes everything alright!

The judges were from Chennai, just a happy coincidence. Nobody knows if Gurunath and Kundra deposed before the panel. We don’t even know who all were questioned. The panel says the police didn’t cooperate, the police say they weren’t asked a question. I say this thing has more holes in it than the Titanic.

So if they never took any police reports into account, what on earth were they doing? Maybe we aren’t giving them enough credit. They conducted an entire investigation without using police reports, but they are probably mind-readers who channel knowledge from a divine source. Another happy co-inc-incidence.

The investigation, if you can call it that, hasn’t gone down well with the Bombay High Court, who went on record saying: ‘The entire incident needs to be reinvestigated’. I agree. After months of arrests, allegations and resignations, we are right where we began, with the Board denying any wrongdoing and the fans wishing, hoping and wondering.

According to the BCCI, one of their objectives is to ‘advance and control the game of cricket throughout India’. Maybe they should change it to plausible deniability. That’s obviously the line they’re following.

Except it isn’t plausible.