MUMBAI: Faced with a situation where his position became increasingly untenable BCCI president N. Srinivasan on Sunday agreed to step aside, with Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) president Jagmohan Dalmiya taking over as the board?s "interim president".

Srinivasan who had convened an emergency meeting will step aside till investigations into the Indian Premier League (IPL) spot-fixing scandal are over.

A probe into his jailed son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan?s role in the IPL spot-fixing is going on. Pressure mounted after IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla resigned on Saturday barely 24 hours after BCCI secretary Sanjay Jagdale and treasurer Ajay Shirke had quit their posts.

In a statement BCCI honorary joint secretary Anurag Thakur said, "N. Srinivasan announced that he will not discharge his duties as the president of the board till such time that the probe is completed. Till such time, Jagmohan Dalmiya will conduct the day to day affairs of the board."

Dalmiya, a friend of Srinivasan, joined BCCI in 1979 and became its treasurer in 1983 the year India won the Cricket World Cup. He has been elected the president of BCCI many times. In 1996, he was unanimously elected International Cricket Council chairman in 1997 for a period of three years.

Punjab Cricket Association president IS Bindra said, "Dalmiya has taken over as interim president. Srinivasan said he cannot resign," after the meeting of the BCCI working committee.

"I questioned the legality of ?interim president? as the BCCI constitution does not permit this," he said.

Dalmiya will appoint a new member on the three-member inquiry commission in place of Sanjay Jagdale who had earlier resigned. The commission will go into the allegations of betting and spot-fixing against Srinivasan?s son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan and his franchise CSK.

The meeting also urged secretary Jagdale and treasurer Ajay Shirke, who have resigned from the posts a few days ago, to rethink their decision and get back to the board in 24 hours. However, both of them said after the meeting that they have decided not to withdraw their resignations.

NEW DELHI: Referring to reports of inquiry into allegations of match and spot fixing the Youth Affairs and Sports Ministry said today that ?as there is a conflict of interest in this inquiry, the BCCI President should tender his resignation on moral grounds pending the outcome of the inquiry.?

Observing that it had witnessed various reports on the subject ?with considerable disquiet?, the Ministry said it was in favour of a law to curb malpractices in all sports. It will therefore send its comments on the bill drafted by the Law Ministry in this regard.

It is looking forward to working with the Law Ministry and other stakeholders for the development of a comprehensive law against match and spot fixing.

Referring to reports that it was in favour of a law regularising betting in the sporting events in the country, the Ministry clarified that betting was a State Subject and cannot be part of a Central law.

The Ministry has made no recommendations to regularise betting to the Law Ministry or to any other organisation.

MUMBAI: The Delhi police chief Neeraj Kumar has stated that they are keeping a vigilant eye on at least three more cricketers for their participation in alleged spot fixing in the cash rich Indian Premier League (IPL).

Kumar said the players under scrutiny were all Indians from one team but declined to name them.

Three cricketers, including Indian fast bowler S Sreesanth, were arrested last week over allegations of spot-fixing.

Sreesanth and the families of the other two have denied the charge. On Tuesday, a court extended their custody for five more days.

The players have also been suspended by BCCI and the Rajasthan Royals.

Spot-fixing involves illegally rigging parts of a match, for example by timing the delivery of a deliberate wide or no-ball, to benefit bookmakers or those betting on matches.

"We are looking at other teams and other players as well, and specifically at three Indian players from one team," said Kumar in a quote to The Indian Express.

The police chief declined to name the players saying it will "affect our investigation".

Police say players use codes like "rotating their watches", "putting towels in their pants", "taking out lockets from their shirts", or "making signs with their clothes" to communicate with the bookmakers.

MUMBAI: A PIL was filed today in the Madras high court bench seeking to direct the government to take over the management and administration of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) as it had failed to promote the game.

The PIL has alleged that the conduct of certain activities and receipt of income were totally commercial and there was no element of charity in the conduct of the BCCI. The court has sent a notice to the central government, IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla and BCCI president N Srinivasan. They have been asked to respond within two weeks.
 
In his petition, city-based lawyer V Santhakumaresan alleged that conduct of certain activities and receipt of income were totally commercial and there was no element of charity in the conduct of BCCI.

The surplus generated by BCCI was shared with players instead of being used for promoting the game claims the PIL.
 
The court should direct CBI to conduct investigation into the entire affairs relating to sources of income, financial status, betting, and match fixing, lawyer V Santhakumaresan who filed the PIL said. In addition the BCCI should desist from using the name ?Indian cricket team? for its team till disposal of the petition.

MUMBAI:The controversies at the very popular global cricket and cash-rich the Indian Premier League (IPL) continue. Following the spot fixing controversy last week, now it is the turn of one of the franchisees Pune Warriors to pull out of the IPL completely. The multibillion dollar Sahara India group, (whose promoter Subrata Roy is currently battling Sebi and its allegations of alleged fraud) which owned the franchise, announced that it was snapping its association with the IPL. It took this decision following the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) insistence on encashing Sahara?s bank guarantee after it failed to pay the franchise fee for this year?s edition of the IPL.

Sahara had bought the franchise for a huge Rs 1,700 crore back for 10 years in 2010 and had later asked that the franchisee fee be trimmed as the number of matches had come down from the 94 promised to 64 only.
 
While announcing its withdrawal from the IPL, it said that it was disgusted by the BCCI?s attitude towards it and will not rejoin the league even if the entire franchise fee was waived.

In a statement the company said, "It is a firm and final decision of Sahara to withdraw from IPL."

"In 2010, Sahara had bid Rs 1,700 crore for the IPL franchise on the basis of revenue calculation on 94 matches. It was tricky on the part of BCCI to put the number in media as 94 matches for getting bigger amount. But we got 64 matches only".

Sahara claimed that the BCCI turned a deaf ear to its pleadings for arbitration and reducing the franchise fee.

"We and Kochi Team immediately protested and requested BCCI to reduce the bid price proportionately for a viable IPL proposition. Nothing was heard. We waited with confidence that such a sports body should have sportsmanship spirit."

"We continuously requested BCCI for arbitration from June 2011. But BCCI is only concerned about money and not about the genuine interests of the franchisee. Thus, (when) we could not penetrate BCCI?s deaf ears, we announced our withdrawal in February 2012," it added.

However Sahara will continue to sponsor the Indian cricket team. "There is a very strong urge in us to withdraw from the Indian Cricket Team Sponsorship from today only. But, interest of the players will suffer if we do so."

"We share an excellent relationship with the players and will not want such dedicated and good human beings who serve the country so committed to get harmed financially due to unsporting attitude of BCCI," the Group said.

"So we have given time to BCCI to get the new sponsorship in place from January 2014, as we will continue the national team?s sponsorship only up to December 2013 that?s the expiry date of the present agreement."

The group, however, assured the players and the stakeholders that their dues would be cleared in time.
 
"Sahara assures its players and stakeholders that their Fees and other rightfully due payments will be protected and under no circumstances will they suffer.

"Sahara also assures its sponsors and other supporters who have shown faith in us that their obligations have and will be fulfilled and there will be no compromise on their status or rights," it said.

It may be recalled that Sahara had threatened to pull out earlier over the same issue in 2010 but was persuaded to stay on after Shah Rukh Khan had intervened. With this the two franchises that had arrived around two years ago - Pune and Kochi are gone.

The IPL for now is back to being an eight team affair.
Former commissioner and creator of the IPL Lalit Modi was quite acerbic about the BCCI?s attitude on Twitter.

Tweeted he: "A year ago I had said that Sahara would pull out from the IPL and Indian cricket. BCCI high-handedness is the issue like I said. Sahara is right in doing what they are doing. Sahara did more for Indian cricket than anyone else. If you don?t treat franchisees equal, this is bound to happen. Sahara paid $37 million a year and a new Hyderabad to pay just a few million dollars a year ? off (sic) course one will smell something."