BCCI holds working committee meeting in Kolkata, Srinivasan attends, Dalmiya chairs

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) held a meeting of its working committee here on Sunday under the chairmanship of its acting president Jagmohan Dalmiya.

N Srinivasan, who had stepped aside as BCCI president in July to facilitate a fair investigation of the spot and match fixing case in connection with the sixth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), following allegations of his son-inlaw Gurunath Meiyappan's involvement, also attended the meeting.

Media reports said Srinivasan is understood to have had brief one-on-one meetings with almost all the working-committee members. The exercise was primarily aimed at staking a claim for a one-year extension as BCCI president in the annual general meeting, which will now be held on September 29 in Chennai.

Despite Srinivasan's keenness on chairing the meeting, it is understood the decision not to do so was based on suggestions from the legal team.

Since the BCCI has already submitted an affidavit in court in connection with a public interest litigation filed by the Cricket Association of Bihar saying Dalmiya is running the day-to-day affairs of the board, had Srinivasan chaired the meeting, it might have been viewed as a contempt of court.

As a result, Dalmiya chaired the meeting, with Srinivasan attending as the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association president, thus making it a rarest-of-rare incident of a BCCI president attending a working committee meeting but not chairing it.

While he didn't have a direct discussion with former IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla, who is believed to be opposing Srinivasan's return to power, two other senior board members - vice-president Arun Jaitley and joint secretary Anurag Thakur, both leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party, preferred to join the meeting via video conferencing from New Delhi.