IPL's Sundar Raman quits ahead of Lodha hearing

Sundar Raman, the IPL's chief operating officer, has resigned from his position. Raman had been associated with the IPL since its inception; he had been the right-hand man of Lalit Modi and, after his removal in 2010, worked closely with N Srinivasan.

Raman - whose resignation was confirmed by IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla - put in his papers during a meeting with BCCI president Shashank Manohar in Nagpur on Monday. He is under investigation for his alleged role in the 2013 IPL corruption scandal, and is scheduled to appear before the Lodha Committee on November 15.

It is understood that Manohar had told Raman that he would need to resign on his own, or face the possibility of being asked to resign at the BCCI's annual general meeting on November 9.

"I have been serving my notice period for some time now. I will be available to them [BCCI and IPL whenever they require, but I will demit office this week," Raman told the Hindu. They [BCCI] wanted to stabilise things, and this has been going on for four to five weeks. The BCCI president [Shashank Manohar] is not well and so I went to Nagpur yesterday to get his signature on tenders and other documents."

Raman's future in the IPL was always in question once Manohar was elected as the BCCI president on October 4. Manohar had been one of the very few BCCI administrators, past or present, to publicly protest against Raman continuing as a BCCI employee once the Mudgal Committee, investigating the 2013 IPL scandal, had named him in its report in connection with "misdemeanours".

"Raman should have gone immediately after the Mudgal Committee report found him prima facie guilty of wrongdoings," Manohar had said in July. "He ought to have stepped down immediately at that time. Now, to restore the faith of people in IPL and the game, Raman needs to go."

But the previous BCCI administration, run remotely by Srinivasan, supported Raman when a release said: "Mr. Sundar Raman gave his explanation relating to his role with reference to the conclusions relating to him in the report of the Mudgal committee. The members heard his explanation and decided that the Board should support Mr Sundar Raman to represent himself before the Supreme Court."

Raman was named as Individual 12 in the Mudgal report, which said he "knew a contact of a bookie and had contacted him eight times in one season". When questioned by the Mudgal panel, Raman "admitted" that he "knew" a contact of the bookie, but claimed to be "unaware of his connection with betting activities". The report stated Raman "also accepted" that he had received information about "individual 1 and individual 11 [that is, Gurunath Meiyappan and Raj Kundra] taking part in betting." He said he was "informed" by the ICC-ACSU chief that this was not actionable information. Raman accepted that this information that he received about two team officials being reportedly involved in betting "was not conveyed to any other individual" by him.

While passing its order last July, the Lodha Commitee said that it "shall also examine the role of Mr. Sundar Raman with or without further investigation, into his activities, and if found guilty, impose a suitable punishment upon him on behalf of BCCI." The Lodha Panel was granted an extension to complete its investigations in addition to making recommendations to overhaul the structure of the BCCI. The final report is likely to be submitted to the Supreme Court by the end of December.

Raman had countered the Mudgal report by filing an affidavit in the Supreme Court in November 2014, stating one of his duties as the IPL's chief operating officer was to interact with various individuals, including celebrities and officials, and that the interactions could not be the basis for a misdemeanour.