BCCI president defends IPL

Mumbai - Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Narayanswamy Srinivasan today, defended the Indian Premier League (IPL) stating that, three corrupt players does not mean that the lucrative cash-rich league is also corrupt.

Three Rajasthan Royals players – S. Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila – were arrested by the Delhi Police special cell yesterday night in Mumbai, on spot-fixing charges.

“One or two bad eggs here and there cannot sully the entire game. I don’t think it is a case of players not having enough money. If at all you can call it greed. We have to objectively examine what further steps can we take and how we can demonstrate that these things don’t pay at all. I don’t subscribe that the IPL is untenable,” Srinivasan told reporters here via a video-conference call from Chennai.

The board president added that they cannot go into the details without having full information.

“We will take all necessary steps to take out this kind of corruption. We will enforce the severest punishment to the players if found guilty. What is shocking, is that one Test and a Ranji player were caught. We cannot go into the details right now, as we do not have enough information. We just know that they have been arrested and the police have got evidence against the three. We have not seen the FIR yet. We would like to see the evidence and take further action,” added Srinivasan.

On being asked what the scandal entailed, he replied: “Justice has to persevered and we will go according to our procedures. The ICC has its anti-corruption unit and we will have discussion with them. We are taking precautionary steps, as the BCCI also has its own anti-corruption unit.

“We hoped that after the ban on five players last year, the message was sent out loud and clear. But as the police have informed us, the bookie network is huge. We thought when we made an example last year, we thought the message was clear. But it is truly sad that this has happened. If there are bad seeds, they are there.

“We will take whatever steps are necessary, for people to understand this is a very serious matter and you can get into a lot of trouble. But we must understand we are just the BCCI. If there is a criminal act, the police has to take steps,” said Srinivasan referring to the ban slapped on the five domestic players last year.