BCCI likely to reprimand Bindra

With the Lalit Modi episode set to conclude in Chennai on September 25, the BCCI is likely to initiate disciplinary proceedings against Inderjit Singh Bindra, the man who helped Modi make headway into cricket administration.

Bindra, a former BCCI president and ICC principal advisor, has emerged as Modi's only supporter as a special general meeting is set to act upon a disciplinary committee report and ban the latter from cricket administration for life. Bindra has opposed the board's handling of the spot-fixing scandal in a working committee meeting on June 2 and has been critical of board and its policies in his blogs and on his Twitter page.

"BCCI is as usual in fixing game… trying to fix Lalit Modi to cover up exposure of 10,000 crores," Bindra tweeted on Thursday, attaching a few confidential documents, including minutes of a few BCCI meetings.

It wasn't the first time that Bindra had criticised the board and as a result, the BCCI is contemplating disciplinary action against him. The first step will obviously be to issue a show cause notice to him for having "tarnished the BCCI's image". However, a BCCI insider said: "It's unlikely that the action will be initiated before the AGM."

To add to his criticism - including writing an open letter in June to ICC Board members to "disallow Srinivasan from attending any ICC meeting" until the enquiry against his son-in-law's alleged involvement in the IPL spot-fixing scandal was complete - Bindra publicly endorsed Haroon Lorgat's candidature for the post of Cricket South Africa chief executive.

While Srinivasan and his top executives had categorically spelled out their "concerns" to CSA officials during a meeting in Chennai in March, Bindra, who doesn't hold a position in BCCI anymore, went ahead and endorsed Lorgat, allegedly in a capacity that extended beyond his position as Punjab Cricket Association president.

"He has supported Lorgat on behalf of BCCI. It's a serious breach of BCCI rules and the whole episode has irked everyone in the BCCI, especially the president," an official said.

While Bindra has clashed with the current Srinivasan regime, he has been in controversies much before Srinivasan or Modi entered cricket administration. In 2000, during the match-fixing scandal, Bindra claimed, in an interview with CNN, that Manoj Prabhakar told him it was Kapil Dev who had offered to bribe him for throwing a match.

The BCCI had issued a show cause notice to Bindra at the time, but he didn't heed it. Though he wasn't suspended, the issue was resolved after the Punjab Cricket Association assured the BCCI that he would not attend any board meeting for two years.