Sahara sets a rider for team sponsorship

Subrata Roy said his group would not renew its sponsorship of the national cricket team but could reconsider the decision if Srinivasan was removed

Sahara Group Chairman Subrata Roy, who'd pulled out his Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise only days before, today demanded the resignation of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) chief N Srinivasan.

He said his group would not renew its sponsorship of the national cricket team but could reconsider the decision if Srinivasan was removed.

The Sahara chief said a person like Sharad Pawar (who is NCP chief and agriculture minister, besides a former head of BCCI) was an apt man to head the cricket body.

Sahara pulled out of the domestic Twenty20 league and announced it would not renew its contract with the national team after the board encashed its bank guarantee for non-payment of franchise fee.

Srinivasan is the vice-chairman and managing director of India Cements, which owns the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) franchise in the IPL.

In another development, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)'s D P Tripathi, too, demanded Srinivasan's resignation. "N Srinivasan should immediately resign, keeping morality in mind, until the investigation is complete. I believe people involved in match-fixing should be punished strictly. People found guilty should be given rigorous punishment of 10 years."

Later in the evening, NCP disowned Tripathi's statement. In a press release, the chief spokesperson of Maharashtra NCP unit Nawab Malik clarified: "The demand for resignation of BCCI Chairman N Srinivasan is not NCP's opinion. It is a personal statement of D P Tripathi. Various agencies are investigating and law will take its own course."

Srinivasan is believed to have refused to resign as BCCI president, saying he'd done no wrong and was unaware of any betting activities by his son-in-law, Gurunath Meiyappan, according to sources in the Chennai franchise.

India Cements said today Meiyappan was not the owner, chief executive or team principal of CSK but was only an honorary member of the management. The Twitter handle bio of Meiyappan was updated and the reference to CSK was removed a few minutes after it came to light that he was described as the team principal of CSK.

Meiyappan arrested
Gurunath Meiyappan, son-in-law of BCCI President N Srinivasan and owner of Chennai Super Kings, was arrested late on Friday night for his alleged involvement in the IPL betting scandal. Meiyappan was arrested after nearly two-and-a-half hours of questioning that began at 9.30 pm. "We have interrogated Gurunath based on information we have. We found his involvement in the offence related to IPL betting case. We have placed him under arrest," Joint Commissioner (crime) Himanshu Roy told reporters.