Crucial BCCI working committee meeting on Sunday

With the very structure of the BCCI in danger, the board's working committee will meet in Chennai at 2.30 pm on Sunday, the second such emergency meeting in a fortnight, to discuss issues of the fallout of the corruption scandal in the IPL.

One of the major points of interest in Sunday's meeting is whether BCCI president N Srinivasan resigns, or steps aside temporarily until the commission appointed to look into his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan, the top Chennai Super Kings official arrested on charges of betting, the Super Kings owners India Cements, and the owners of Rajasthan Royals, completes its inquiry.

At the moment, it is more likely that Srinivasan will step aside temporarily, and if that is the case the working committee will have to nominate an acting president. "If the president steps aside for a limited period, the constitution doesn't prohibit the working committee from nominating any BCCI member, irrespective of the zone he represents," a BCCI source told ESPNcricinfo. Former board president Shashank Manohar and current vice-president Arun Jaitley are frontrunners for the post of acting president.

There is a remote possibility of the working committee being presented with a request to convene a Special General Body or Extraordinary General Meeting of the BCCI, to initiate impeachment proceedings against the president. Even though ten members may present their letters seeking impeachment procedure to be initiated, Srinivasan might not resign, and they will find it difficult to get the 3/4th majority required to remove the president. Perhaps considering such a possibility, most of the five vice-presidents who were considering resignation on Saturday morning, decided to delay their decision at least until the meeting on Sunday.

There is also the possibility of the meeting being declared illegal, if any of the members object to the legality of the meeting, because as per regulations the working committee requires three days' notice before it is convened.

However, before Srinivasan's future is decided, the working committee will have to reconstitute the commission that was going to probe Gurunath, India Cements and the owners of the Royals. On Friday night, BCCI secretary Sanjay Jagdale resigned his post because he was hurt by the developments in Indian cricket and also said he would not serve on the three-member commission, which included two High Court judges.

With Justice T Jayaram Chouta, one of the two independent members on the commission, saying the inquiry could not be held because of Jagdale's resignation, the working committee will have to name a replacement.

Apart from Jagdale, the BCCI treasurer Ajay Shirke also resigned on Friday, leaving two of the top three offices in the board vacant. It will be up to Srinivasan to name their successors, since the BCCI constitution only gives the president the power to fill vacancies.

The previous working committee meeting was held in Chennai on May 19, in the wake of spot-fixing allegations against the three arrested Rajasthan Royals players, and between then and now Gurunath was arrested on charges of betting and links with bookies. That created a misunderstanding between BCCI members, given Srinivasan's close links to Gurunath in terms of franchise official and family member. However, instead of calling for a meeting and taking members into confidence, like he did when the Royals players were arrested, Srinivasan refused to resign his post and remained defiant despite outrage in the media and among the public. The deterioration of the situation culminated in Jagdale and Shirke's resignations on Friday evening.

The meeting in Chennai is an opportunity for Srinivasan to gauge the situation. While some representatives of BCCI's affiliated units have asked for Srinivasan's resignation while speaking to the media in personal capacity, no state board has made its official stance clear. Srinivasan is likely to appeal to the members to keep the "board games" aside, with the credibility of Indian cricket at stake because of the corruption issues in the IPL.