Friday 23 January 2015 12:38, UK
India's supreme court has struck a blow against malpractice in the Indian Premier League (IPL) by finding the son-in-law of the International Cricket Council (ICC) chairman Narayanaswami Srinivasan guilty of betting on his own team to lose.
The court has also ordered a clean-up of the country's deep conflict of interests in cricket by outlawing anyone with a commercial interest in the Indian Premier League (IPL) also having an administrative role within the sport.
Srinivasan's son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan was arrested by Mumbai police in 2013 who produced evidence he placed bets both for and against his team, sometimes during matches.
The judgements are deeply embarrassing for Srinivasan, who is the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and also the managing director of India Cements, the company which owns the Chennai Super Kings (CSK).
The court ruled that while match-fixing could not be proved against Meiyappan, he was effectively a team official of CSK, and had access to privileged information. Raj Kundra, part-owner of the Rajasthan Royals IPL team, was also found guilty of betting.
The court judgement said: "We have... held Mr Gurunath Meiyappan and Mr Raj Kundra to be guilty of betting."
Srinivasan will now have to sell his stake and shares held by his close family in CSK if he wants to continue to head the BCCI.
The court has appointed an independent three-man committee - comprising former judges of the Supreme Court of India - to decide on sanctions for the two men and the franchises and to conclude its proceedings within six months.
The BCCI said in a statement: "The BCCI welcomes the order of the Honorable Supreme Court, which has put to rest the uncertainty, that has prevailed in the recent past.
"The BCCI will extend it's unstinted cooperation to the three-member committee appointed by the Honorable Supreme Court.
"The Annual General Body meeting of the BCCI which also includes the election of the office bearers will be held in accordance with the directions and timelines as stipulated by the Honorable Supreme Court."
