New Delhi – India's Supreme Court delayed green-lighting an independent investigation into corruption in the Indian Premier League after the Board of Control for Cricket in India asked a new panel to be appointed.
The court last week asked Justice Mukul Mudgal, who headed a three-man commission that found Chennai Super Kings team principal Gurunath Meiyappan guilty of being in contact with illegal bookmakers, to prepare for a renewed investigation.
The court was expected to announce details of the panel and investigation on Tuesday, but said it will pass on the order later after objections from the BCCI.
Meiyappan is the son-in-law of suspended BCCI chief Narainswami Srinivasan, who will also be investigated.
Though Srinivasan was not directly implicated, the Mudgal commission reportedly named him among 13 people who needed to be investigated, since allegations against them could not be proved immediately.
The court preferred its own investigators because it was not satisfied with the BCCI's proposed panel of former India allrounder Ravi Shastri, former Central Bureau of Investigation chief R.K. Raghavan, and retired Calcutta High Court judge J.N. Patel.
Shastri was contracted as a commentator by the BCCI, Patel was related to BCCI official Shivlal Yadav, while Raghavan was the secretary of a club in the Srinivasan-headed Tamil Nadu Cricket Association.
The issue came to the Supreme Court after a two-man BCCI panel initially cleared Meiyappan last year. But the Bombay High Court, after it was petitioned by the Cricket Association of Bihar, announced the BCCI panel's decision to clear Meiyappan was "illegal and unconstitutional."
The spot-fixing controversy arose last year after the arrest of a clutch of players including former test cricketer Shantakumaran Sreesanth for spot-fixing. – Sapa-AP