New Delhi:
N Srinivasan is back in office as the chief of the Indian cricket board, sources have said. He took over at 8 pm on Tuesday, ending Jagmohan Dalmiya's short term as interim president.
Mr Srinivasan reportedly argues that he can be back at his job now that an internal inquiry set up by the Board of Control for Cricket in India or BCCI to investigate allegations of spot-fixing and betting in the Indian Premier League against his son-in law Gurunath Meiyappan and the Chennai Super Kings, the team owned by his company, India Cements, is now over.
"I can't reply, don't hound me like this," Mr Srinivasan told the media when asked about his reported comeback at the helm of the BCCI.
The Bombay High Court, however, said yesterday that the findings of the two-member panel set up by the BCCI, the world's richest cricket body, are invalid. The panel had found no evidence against Mr Meiyappan or the Chennai team, clearing the decks for Mr Srinivasan's return.
The BCCI's working committee is scheduled to meet on Friday, August 2, and Mr Srinivasan has said that he will attend. Mr Srinivasan can officially take over only after the board's working committee has formally re-instated him; the working committee had asked him to "step aside" in June, which he did reluctantly, making it clear that he would be back in his chair after the committee of two retired high court judges concluded its inquiry.
After Mr Meiyappan was arrested in May this year on charges of gambling, cheating, and conspiracy, many members of the BCCI had sought Mr Srinivasan's resignation. But the powerful BCCI boss had refused to resign.