Another set-back for BCCI chief Srinivasan

Narayanaswami Srinivasan's hopes of chairing the Indian cricket board's Sep 29 Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Chennai suffered another set-back as the Supreme Court Thursday postponed the hearing of the case between the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB).

The next hearing of the case will be known Saturday when the apex court finalises the schedule for next week.

"The case was scheduled for Wednesday but it came up today (Thursday) very late around 3.40 p.m. Since the hearing was not possible in 20 minutes, it was postponed. The next date of hearing will be known on Saturday when the court prepares the schedule for next week," BCCI counsel Radha Rangaswamy told IANS.

Asked about the chances of the case coming up next week, Rangaswamy said: "We don't know. It is up to the court to decide."

The BCCI is challenging the Bombay High Court's decision that had termed illegal the two-member probe panel comprising retired high court judges T. Jayaram Chouta and R. Balasubramanian.

The board-appointed panel had "found no evidence of wrongdoing by either Srinivasan's son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan, team principal of Chennai Super Kings, or Raj Kundra, Rajasthan Royals co-owner".

The unrecognised CAB had filed a petition in the Bombay High Court challenging the legality of the two-member panel that was set-up by the BCCI.

The postponement of the case comes close on the heels of Srinivasan being chargsheeted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a corruption case.

Srinivasan and his company India Cements, also owners of IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings, have been chargesheeted by the CBI in a corruption case involving YSR Congress party chief Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy.

In the charge-sheet relating to India Cements, CBI named Srinivasan, its managing director, as accused number three.

The CBI in its charge-sheet stated that India Cements allegedly invested Rs.140 crore in Jagan's businesses in return for the benefits it received from the Andhra Pradesh government then headed by Jagan's father, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, who was killed in a helicopter crash in 2009.

Srinivasan had stepped aside as BCCI chief after his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan was arrested by the Mumbai police in the IPL betting scandal.

Srinivasan has also filed an affidavit in Bombay High Court July 4 that he will return only after the allegations of corruption during the IPL have been fairy resolved.