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BCCI treasurer Ajay Shirke is mulling resigning his post because of the manner in which the board handled the betting charges
against the arrested Chennai Super Kings official, Gurunath Meiyappan,
who is N Srinivasan's son-in-law, and the spot-fixing charges against
the three Rajasthan Royals players. Shirke has held his office since
October 1, 2011, the day N Srinivasan became president.
"I will wait and see for the time being. If the board continues to
ignore what I consider is primary responsibility, I will find it
difficult for myself to be associated with it," Shirke told
ESPNcricinfo. "It is an evolving situation, so I will wait and see.
"A few days, maybe within a week, I will make up my mind. If there's
going to be more and more room for fingers to be pointed away, I will
have to take a call. That doesn't mean I will run away from fulfilling
my responsibilities, but and I cannot let my personal reputation and
credibility be tarnished. That for me stands above everything else."
While calls for Srinivasan's resignation have been getting louder, he has repeatedly declined to resign. Though the BCCI constituted a three-member commission,
which includes two former Tamil Nadu High Court judges, to probe the
complaints against Meiyappan, the Super Kings owners India Cements and
the Rajasthan Royals owners, Shirke highlighted the deficiency in the
board's handling of the matter.
"I am not satisfied. Normally whenever there's a crisis - small, major,
any kind of crisis - we call for a (working committee) meeting," Shirke
said. "And we have had many such crises - of sponsors pulling out, or of
an IPL franchise being disbanded. On every such occasion, the president
calls for a meeting, and the issue is discussed in great detail by
every member of the working committee. That has been the prevalent way.
"Even when the players were arrested, there was an emergent meeting.
Then we had a follow-up meeting in Chennai. Then the president came up
to the media and explained all the measures that had been taken. After
this, there hasn't been anything on this (Gurunath arrest) issue. If the
president calls for a meeting and puts his views across and hears out
the other units - you don't necessarily need to change your position -
it would follow the proper procedure. Otherwise, the media trial will go
on and on.
"I have made my stance very clear on it. If I was Srinivasan and my
son-in-law was arrested, I would have stepped aside till the internal
probe was over."
Shirke said the BCCI reaction to Meiyappan's arrest had been "more
damaging" than the player arrests. "What has been happening is, people
who have no knowledge about the functioning of the board have been
referring to the board as a sham, a body of hoodlums and goons, which is
very unfair. I don't want to name anybody but if such people start
talking about the way Indian cricket is administered, then people are
bound to be misguided. We know how much of an effort we put into running
the board.
"I can vouch for myself and all my colleagues for making it one of the
most credible and most professionally-run sporting bodies in the country
by a distance. We don't get government grants, we pay huge taxes to the
government, we generate foreign exchange of around Rs 350 crore every
year and we have not just created top-quality infrastructure all over
the country but have also maintained all those assets in top conditions.
"To top it all, the sport that we represent is the only sport where
India is consistently among top teams in the world. On such a backdrop,
how can you make a general statement like BCCI is nothing but a sham and
refer to every member as a hoodlum? If you have a comparative analysis
of BCCI and any other top sports federation in India in terms of
audited accounts, quality and method of financial statements, number of
elected members running the sport by one of the top private auditing
firms, you will realise what all good has the BCCI been doing.
"That doesn't mean there are no issues and problems and complexities to
be addressed. There are plenty of ways wherein we can improve going into
the future and we are striving for that. But anyone coming on camera
and slamming the board is very unfair."
The spot-fixing scandal came to light when Delhi Police arrested three Rajasthan Royals cricketers
within hours after the Royals' match against Mumbai Indians at Wankhede
Stadium on May 15. Several bookies and an actor were arrested after
that, and Meiyappan was arrested by Mumbai Police on May 24.
Amol Karhadkar is a correspondent at ESPNcricinfo
Feeds: Amol Karhadkar
© ESPN EMEA Ltd.
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