N Srinivasan's presence forces BCCI to adjourn working committee meeting

N Srinivasan attended the BCCI meeting in spite of stiff opposition from the board members.

The BCCI working committee meeting was adjourned just minuted after it started on Friday evening due to the presence of former board president, N Srinivasan, ESPNCricinfo reports. The 70-year-old’s maintained he was entitled to attend the meeting in his capacity as TNCA president, but following stiff opposition from the members who cited ‘legal implications’, the meeting was called off.

The board was set to address the future of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals, the two IPL teams that were handed suspensions by the Lodha Committee, based on the recommendations of the working committee that was set up after the verdict came out.

The supreme court had strongly criticised the country’s governing body for allowing Srinivasan to chair the previous working committee meeting held in February and this time out, the BCCI was not taking any chances. The adjournment, however, meant a number of important decisions, including sorting out the future of IPL, were still pending with no further meetings scheduled before the Annual General Meeting on September 27.

Despite repeated requests from the board members and objections from Aditya Patel, the petitioner in the IPL spot-fixing case, Srinivasan made his way to Kolkata where the meeting was being held. The BCCI tried yet again to convince Srinivasan to stay out of the meeting stating that the conflict of interest issues with his previous connections to the CSK franchise and the resulting restrictions imposed by the Supreme Court, but yet again he refused to stand down.

IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla, BCCI legal advisor Ushanath Banerjee, and treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry then held a meeting with Srinivasan in a final effort to convince the current ICC Chairman, and it was agreed that Srinivasan could attend the meeting “at your own risk.”

However, once the meeting started the members staged strong protests against Srinivasan and the BCCI decided to adjourn the meeting citing lack of legal clarity.