No reason for me to stay away - Srinivasan

ICC chairman N Srinivasan has asked the Supreme Court of India to allow him to be reinstated as BCCI president since the Mudgal committee report on the IPL 2013 corruption case had made it clear that he was not involved in any match-fixing or betting.

According to Srinivasan, the only incriminatory issue raised by the Mudgal report against him was the instance of him - along with four other BCCI officials - not taking any action against an unnamed player despite knowing the player had violated the code of conduct. That, Srinivasan said, was a "minor" incident, and happened when Shashank Manohar was heading the BCCI.

This is the third time Srinivasan has asked to be allowed to return as BCCI president, a post he was forced to leave earlier this year after the three-man Mudgal panel had named him as one of 13 individuals who needed to be probed further in a seal envelop handed over to the court. Subsequently, the court said he would need to stop discharging his duties as a president till the investigation was complete.

"I have read the final report of the Mudgal committee and I believe the conclusions in the report that I was not involved in any betting or matching-fixing activity, nor did I scuttle any investigation, clearly vindicate my stand that all the allegations made against me by the petitioner and other persons inimical to me were completely false, baseless and motivated out of malice," Srinivasan said in an affidavit filed in the court on Friday.

Srinivasan also contested the Mudgal committee's charge against him, which said: "This individual [Srinivasan], along with four other BCCI officials, was aware of the violation of the Players Code of Conduct by Individual 3, but no action was taken against Individual 3 by any of the aforesaid officials who were aware of this infraction." Individual 3 is so named as the Mudgal panel had assigned numbers to the players named in its report, and let only the court know of their identities, to protect their identities for now.

According to Srinivasan, during the emergency working committee meeting held in Chennai on November 18, IPL chairman Ranjib Biswal, who also is the Orissa Cricket Association president, pointed out that the Mudgal panel might have referred to an incident that occurred when he was manager of the Indian team on one of its tours. Srinivasan said the said incident Biswal referred to happened when he was BCCI secretary and Shashank Manohar was the board president.

"I state that I do not know the identity of Individual 3, however, at the meeting of the BCCI working committee held on 18.11.2014, which I attended as president of the TNCA, the issue was discussed and Shri Ranjib Biswal, president of Orissa Cricket Association, while taking no names, felt that the incident referred to might have occurred when he was the manager of the Indian cricket team. Assuming the same to be true, I may state that at the relevant time, Mr Shashank Manohar was the president of BCCI and I have learnt from Mr Ranjib Biswal, the then manager of the Indian team, that he had sent a report only to the then president, BCCI, at the end of the tour.

"He had apparently called the president soon after the incident and received instructions to warn the supposed Individual 3, which he did. I was the honorary secretary of the BCCI at the relevant time and I was never instructed by the president to do anything in the matter. Indeed the tour report was not sent to me," Srinivasan said in his affidavit.

Stressing that there was "absolutely nothing in the [Mudgal] report incriminating me", Srinivasan also said that the incident involving Individual 3 did not take place in the IPL. He said: "Further, it was not in relation to any corrupt activity, betting, gambling, fixing of matches etc, but a minor incident."

Srinivasan said he had spoken to the player who he thinks is Individual 3 about the incident, but passed the onus on Manohar to take any action. "Though I do remember to have spoken to the supposed Individual 3, it turned out to be a minor incident for which the Individual 3 was warned. Therefore, it is not correct to say that no action was taken by me and four other board officials. Apparently, the then president, BCCI, had dealt with the issue directly and I cannot be attributed with any inaction."

Srinivasan said there was "absolutely no reason for me to continue to stay away from my elected position in BCCI", and asked the court to pass an appropriate order.