New Delhi: Lashing out at N. Srinivasan and Raj Kundra, former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi on Monday said that Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals should be removed from IPL if their owners are indulged in any betting activity.
He also stated that all the BCCI members who voted in favour of Srinivasan should be banned from all the cricketing activities and IPL Chief Operating Officer Sundar Raman should be locked up too.
Modi took to twitter as soon as contents of the SC's comments on Srinivasan became public. The SC came hard on the ICC Chairman and wondered if, 'he being an office bearer of the BCCI could also be an owner of a franchise in the IPL.' It also observed that the Indian board had become a 'mutual benefit society' and asked Srinivasan to explain his 'conflict of interest'.
Modi, who was thrown out of the IPL in 2010 on charges of financial irregularities, threw the rule book back at BCCI and demanded the immediate banning of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR), the two franchises whose owners have been named by the Mudgal panel.
The SC had formed the Mudgal panel to investigate charges of 'spot-fixing and betting in IPL 2013'. It concluded that Gurunath Meiyappan, the son-in-law of N Srinivasan and 'team official' of CSK, as well as Raj Kundra, co-owner of Rajasthan Royals, were guilty of being actively involved in betting.
Modi said he agreed to SC's verdict that the conflict of interest must go and the guilty must be punished and made example off as the matter can't be swept under the carpet.
In an interview to a leading news channel, he claimed that he was financing Aditya Verma's petition against BCCI President-in-exile N Srinivasan and others in the IPL spot-fixing case.
"It's a sad day in Indian cricket history. Money and muscle power has found its way into BCCI. SC intervention is the only way forward," Modi said.
Modi says he has no regrets not being part of cricket administration in the country as long as it is run by "crooks".
"I am happy to be banned. I don't have to sit on the same table with the crooks," he said.
Verma, who is secretary of unrecognised Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB), had filed the petition last year in the wake of IPL spot-fixing scandal.
The hearing of the report submitted by the Mukul Mudgal committee will resume on Tuesday, as the fates of N Srinivasan, Gurunath Meiyappan, Sundar Raman and Royals owner Raj Kundra hang in balance.
(with agency inputs)
