Srinivasan attends BCCI meet, gets support for re-election

The Indian cricket board's ousted president N. Srinivasan attended an informal meeting of the board here Sunday and got support for his re-election for a third term in office.

Srinivasan, who has been removed as the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India by the Supreme Court, attended Sunday's meeting as the president of Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA), which is member of the BCCI working committee.

At the informal meeting, the BCCI decided to postpone its Annual General Meeting (AGM) scheduled for later this month, apparently aimed at facilitating Srinivasan's bid to recontest, and said the future course of action will be decided at the working committee meeting slated for Sep 26.

A top BCCI official told IANS that the meeting was attended by around 20 member associations and six of them from the east zone pledged their support for Srinivasan.

As per the rotation policy of the BCCI, it is east zone's term to nominate a candidate, and Srinivasan reportedly is looking to get himself nominated from east.

"All the six members from east zone, including the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), have pledged their support for Srinivasan. If the Supreme Court allows Srinivasan to contest, then he could be re-elected unanimously. An opposition candidate needs support of at least two east zone members to contest against Srinivasan," the official, who attended the meeting, told IANS.

The AGM and the subsequent elections of the BCCI were slated for this month end as Srinivasan's term for a third year in office expires Sep 29.

Another top official of the BCCI, who skipped the meeting, told IANS it was too early to say that Sriniavasan could be elected unanimously.

"All those who attended the meeting today were BCCI members and not voters. Several members who have the voting rights didn't attend the meeting. Equations change pretty quickly in board politics. Lot of members don't want Sriniavasan to continue for the fourth year. Other senior members should also get a chance to become the BCCI president," the official told IANS.

The BCCI is being forced to postpone its elections after the Supreme Court earlier this week ignored pleas to reinstate Srinivasan as its president.

It also gave two more months to the Mukul Mudgal Committee to submit the final report in the spot-fixing and betting scandal in the 2013 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The scam involved 13 people, including some prominent cricketers.