Sidelined Srinivasan gets support for re-election

Twenty-one BCCI member representatives have unanimously decided to support N Srinivasan for the board presidency at an informal meeting in Chennai on Sunday. The members were briefed that the BCCI AGM, where the election will take place, would be postponed and the decision to do so would be formalised at a working committee meeting on September 26.

Despite being sidelined from BCCI affairs by the Supreme Court for over five months because of the on-going investigation into the IPL corruption scandal, Srinivasan hopes to be re-elected as president for the next three years. Sunday's meeting was a show of strength, with Srinivasan sending out a strong message days after the court granted the Mudgal inquiry committee a two-month extension to file its corruption report and said that Srinivasan was barred from BCCI duties until then.

It is understood that 18 members, including five of the six voters from the east zone, were present in Chennai. Rajeev Shukla, the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Assocation chief who is also a BCCI vice-president, joined over teleconference, as did Shivlal Yadav from Hyderabad and Arindam Ganguly from Tripura, the sixth member from the east. The fact that all six east-zone units pledged support to Srinivasan means, if he is allowed to contest the election, he will be re-elected unanimously. No individual can file nomination papers in this year's election for the president's post without support of two east-zone members.

Among other BCCI member associations, Maharashtra, Saurashtra, Vidarbha, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan [suspended] and three government bodies did not attend the meeting.

"The working committee will discuss and finalise how to proceed further in this issue," BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel told ESPNcricinfo after the meeting. "After taking all the possible technical and legal opinions, at the moment, there seems to be no other option but to postpone the AGM."

Meanwhile, Aditya Verma, the petitioner in the IPL corruption scandal, has stated he will move Supreme Court if the BCCI doesn't hold its AGM and election before September 30. "I will pray to court to direct BCCI to conduct their AGM on time and also to appoint an observer for the smooth and fair election of BCCI," Verma said.