Interest of CSK, Royals' players will be paramount: Rajiv Shukla

Rajiv Shukla

Kolkata, July 16 (IANS) Indian Premier League's (IPL) governing council chairman Rajiv Shukla on Thursday said the interest of cricketers of suspended Indian Premier League (IPL) sides will be primary and all options will be explored to retain the brand value of the world's richest domestic T20 competition.

"Our aim is to make IPL 9 better than the previous editions. So the work is going on. We rest assured that it will be a better product. The interest of the players will be paramount, state associations and BCCI will be protected and game at large will be superior," Shukla was quoted as saying by television channel NDTV.

Two IPL franchises - Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals - were on Tuesday suspended from the league for two years by the Supreme Court-appointed Justice Lodha Committee in a 2013 spot-fixing and betting scandal.

"I had a long discussion with BCCI president and honourable secretary also. There will be meeting on July 19 in Mumbai, where the Lodha Commission report will be deliberated upon. We will study the report and after that a sub group will be created and sub group will come up with suggestions how the report will be implemented," he said.

"That I can't comment about. As we have read the report, they have been suspended for two years. So when the implementation will come we will go by the recommendation of the Lodha report and that will be decided by the governing council," he said.

Shukla stressed on the fact that the stakeholders of IPL should not be worried as the tournament will emerge from the crisis strongly.

"The stakeholders should not be worried at all. IPL will survive and it will be a better product. It has got an international value also and is watched throughout the world. We will try to improve IPL. Our discussion was regarding IPL only particularly after the Lodha commission report and also regarding BCCI," Shukla said.