Srinivasan remains on BCCI sidelines

N Srinivasan will remain on the sidelines of the BCCI after a meeting of the board's working committee in Delhi was scrapped on Friday. Jagmohan Dalmiya will continue running the BCCI's affairs in the interim, a continuation of the status quo on a day that could have had Srinivasan resume functioning as board president.

The BCCI will also appeal the ruling of the Bombay High Court, which declared the appointment of the independent probe panel "illegal and unconstitutional," in the Supreme Court of India.

A meeting of the IPL governing council had preceded the scrapped working committee meeting in Delhi and Srinivasan had been present for that meeting but had to recuse himself. "It was only after that the meeting started and the decisions were taken," Ratnakar Shetty, the BCCI's game development officer, said. "Mr Arun Jaitley explained the important points of the Bombay High Court order. There was a discussion in the committee and the committee decided to file an SLP (Special Leave Petition) in the Supreme Court."

The BCCI said that the probe panel had been appointed in accordance with IPL rules. "As a matter of principle, the members confirmed that it was important that the [IPL] governing council's actions be and be seen to be both legally and ethically correct," the BCCI said. "The governing council believes that the probe commission was properly constituted in accordance with the IPL operational rules, and has consequently decided that an appeal should be filed in the Honourable Supreme Court.

"This decision having been made, Mr N Srinivasan rejoined the meeting and, in the light of the pending appeal to the Supreme Court, requested Mr. Jagmohan Dalmiya to continue discharging his functions at the BCCI for the present."

The cancellation of the working committee meeting, however, was because of a technicality, according to BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel. "Every member knew what the meeting was called for. The meeting was called off as there was a slight mistake in issuing the notice," he said. "By mistake the word 'emergent' was not written. A normal working committee meeting requires more time. Unfortunately it was just four days time. To avoid the technicality of it, the meeting was cancelled."

On Wednesday, Srinivasan had declared his intention to attend his first working committee in two months, after the two-man panel cleared the owners of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals of any wrongdoing with regard to the betting and spot-fixing scandal in IPL 2013. However, the Bombay High Court's ruling on Tuesday that the appointment of the probe panel had been unconstitutional had undermined Srinivasan's position.

The governing council also took the decision to replace Ajay Shirke and Sanjay Jagdale, who had resigned in the wake of the betting scandal, with Patel and treasurer Ravi Sawant on the IPL's code of behaviour committee.