N Srinivasan and the power game

N Srinivasan

Indian industrialist Narayanaswami Srinivasan is no stranger to controversies. About to become the most powerful man in the world of cricket, he has suddenly found himself being bowled out by the ring of controversies surrounding him, his family, his business ways and ethics. Until a few hours ago, he was the chief of the BCCI. “In our opinion, Srinivasan has to step down for a fair investigation into the allegation of betting,” said Justice A.K.Patnaik, commenting on the IPL 2013 spot-fixing and betting scandal.

The enraged bench was very vocal when it said that “it was nauseating to see the 69-year-old still sticking to his chair”. With the court ordering his removal and replacing him with cricket icon Sunil Gavaskar for the time being, Srinivasan stands to fight a battle, most of it alone.

N Srinivasan is big. Big enough to have allegedly lobbied against Tim May, ex-chief of players at the International Cricket Council, to replace him with a more favourable member in Indian television commentator L. Sivaramakrishnan. He’s big enough to have outplayed Lalit Modi at his own game by filing a criminal case against him and accusing him of money fraud in the Indian Premier League (IPL) to the tune of about Rs 470 crores. Furthermore, Srinivasan’s lack of support for the Pune Warriors and Kochi Tuskers as IPL teams led to the two teams’ ouster.

Srinivasan is known to be lackadaisical and not give enough backing to the small players in the game. He is also the reason why Sahara, the long standing Indian cricket team sponsor, isn’t associated with the team anymore. With his power base in Chennai, he is the head of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association, as well. He is also the president of the Tamil Nadu Golf Federation and the All India Golf Federation. He is the head honcho at India Cements, which in turn owns Chennai Super Kings (CSK), one of the most successful teams in the IPL. Srinivasan is powerful enough that he is alleged to have amended the BCCI constitution so that he could get his piece of the IPL pie and buy CSK, and it does not end here.

In 2012, he was accused by Lalit Modi of rigging the 2009 IPL Auctions to buy England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff, arguably the most valuable player at the second edition of the auctions. In 2013, Srinivasan’s son-in-law, Gurunath Meiyappan was arrested by the Mumbai police in the wake of the IPL betting scam. Meiyappan was charged with insider trading for leaking information to bookies and also for having involved in heavy betting. It is clearly evident that the man in question has no dearth of money or the means to make it. There is nothing substantial that does not have a Srinivasan stamp, especially in the world of cricket. He is on the board of many companies in the country, directly or indirectly.

With the aforementioned titles that he holds, Srinivasan has often been touted as a ruthless businessman. “I work very long hours,” he said in an interview to the Financial Express two years ago on how he managed cement and cricket together. Despite being on the board of so many companies, he has remain untouched for most part of his corporate career. How did he do it?

The answer to Srinivasan’s well established throne of power stems from the fact that people go to him for everything they want, and he obliges, too, as long as it is within his territory. The man of varied interests that he is, Srinivasan also has close connections to the political bigwigs in Tamil Nadu. Speaking of which, it calls for another allegation that Srinivasan has to address: The Central Bureau of Investigation called on him to answer questions on the revenues of his company, India Cements. The CBI is investigating claims that India Cements benefited by investing in companies owned by Y.S. Jagamohan Reddy, son of former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y.S. Rajashekhar Reddy.

With all these scandals in place, N. Srinivasan is about to step into the shoes of ex-ICC chairman, Haroon Lorgat. The question is if this man deserves to be associated with the game at all, let alone be at the helm of cricket, a sport which is referred to as gentleman’s game, or any sport, or corporate conglomerate for that matter. A general consensus would only show how his ruthlessness and arrogance has paved way for the hatred in the hearts of many. Australian newspaper Daily Telegraph called him “cricket’s most destructive figure”, while Lalit Modi called him a “modern day Ravan” as the country refuses to not sideline with the notion. For a man who has put the credibility of the seat of power in question, it is no surprise that people want him out, including the highest judicial powerhouse of India.

If his corporate troubles were not enough, his ongoing family feud and tribulations within his family only make the game worse for Srinivasan. His only son, Ashwin (43) came out of the closet with respect to his sexual inclination. Openly accepting that he is homosexual, Ashwin also claimed to have been subjected to torture at the hands of his own father. In 2012, Ashwin accused Srinivasan of physically and mentally harassing him and his partner because of their sexual orientation. The father was also accused of using his power and name to get his son beaten up by the Mumbai police.

Ashwin had earlier nailed his brother-in-law’s involvement in the IPL scam by claiming that Meiyappan always had links with bookies in Dubai and Chennai. He did, in some way, bury his own family member, though. Srinivasan’s son also minced no words when he questioned his father’s decision of constantly halting at Dubai for a couple of hours every time he was travelling. The family’s dirty linen is being washed in public by none other than Srinivasan’s own son. The gods seem to have not sided with him on many grounds. His prayers, alas, have fallen on deaf ears. It’s time the seat of power goes to a man more in tandem with ethics and to someone who plays by the rules of the game.