Gavaskar writes to Supreme Court about BCCI position

Sunil Gavaskar has written to the Supreme Court, asking it to clarify the status of his position in the BCCI at present.* The court had put Gavaskar in charge of the IPL this March, after asking BCCI president N Srinivasan to step down till the investigation into the IPL spot-fixing case was completed.

It had also directed that Gavaskar should be released from his contractual obligations with the BCCI as a commentator but said he should be compensated for his new role. Reports on Friday had suggested that Gavaskar had written to the court regarding this compensation, but he denied this, telling ESPNcricinfo that it was an "utterly false and mischievous story".

"I have not written to the Supreme Court complaining about the BCCI or anything as the story suggests. All I have written to the Superme Court is asking for the clarification regarding my current situation," Gavaskar said. "The first order, given at the end of March, was pretty clear that I would be the BCCI interim president, IPL, till the end of the tournament. In the middle of May the court said Shivlal [Yadav, who was named interim BCCI president for non-IPL affairs by the court] and I would continue till further orders. So it is just that little bit of confusion and that is all that I had asked for.

"This business of asking for any compensation from BCCI is utter rubbish. I wanted an update from the court on whether I am still the temporary BCCI president, IPL, because the Champions League T20 starts soon. I did not mention not one word about compensation. It is an utterly mischievous story. Whoever has put this out owes me an apology."

The issue dates back to June 2013 when the Cricket Association of Bihar secretary Aditya Verma raised charges of a conflict of interest in the formation of BCCI's two-member inquiry panel into the IPL corruption issue, which led to the suspension of Sreesanth and several other players. A Bombay High Court ruling later termed the probe panel "illegal". The BCCI and the CAB filed petitions in the Supreme Court against this order, with the CAB contending that the Bombay High Court could have suggested a fresh mechanism to look into the corruption allegations.

The Supreme Court then appointed a three-member committee, headed by former High Court judge Mukul Mudgal and comprising additional solicitor general L Nageswara Rao and Assam Cricket Association member Nilay Dutta, in October 2013, to conduct an independent inquiry into the allegations of corruption against Srinivasan's son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan, India Cements, and Rajasthan Royals team owner Jaipur IPL Cricket Private Ltd, as well as with the larger mandate of allegations around betting and spot-fixing in IPL matches and the involvement of players. The committee had submitted its findings to the court on February 10, including a sealed envelop with allegations against 13 persons. In April, the court asked the committee to continue its investigations into the matter, probing the allegations against those 13 persons, and the inquiry is ongoing.