Cricket | Chennai, Rajasthan face 2-year bans in Indian Premier League

Rajasthan Royals vs Chennai Super Kings, 15th Match, IPL 2015

Indian Premier League teams Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals face two-year suspensions and two officials are facing life-time bans after a Supreme Court-appointed committee recommended punishments in a corruption scandal that has overshadowed the highest-profile Twenty20 competition in cricket.
The three-member committee headed by former chief justice Rajendra Lodha announced the sanctions yesterday, saying Chennai team principal Gurunath Meiyappan and Rajasthan co-owner Raj Kundra had been found to have bet on IPL games or of being in contact with illegal gamblers, “bringing the game, BCCI and IPL into disrepute.”
Meiyappan is the son-in-law of International Cricket Council chairman Narainaswamy Srinivasan, who had earlier been restricted by the court from running for another term as president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India owing to a conflict of interest. His company, India Cements, held a stake in the Chennai franchise.
Justice Lodha predicted the decisions of his committee would stand.
“The Supreme Court order says it is subject to any remedy in appropriate judicial proceedings, so a challenge is available in court. But since this is a committee comprising three senior judges of the Supreme Court, it is highly unlikely a court will interfere,” Justice Lodha said.
The committee said Meiyappan had regularly bet on IPL matches.
“The fact that Gurunath was an integral part of CSK and most people saw him as the face of the team, he ought not to have indulged in betting practices,” the committee said.
On Kundra, the committee said: “That the allegation of match-fixing against Kundra was not finally established does not matter because his status as owner has brought disrepute.”
According to IPL rules, a team can be suspended if its officials bring the tournament into disrepute.
“The argument that these acts were personal and the franchise cannot be responsible cannot be accepted,” Justice Lodha said.
The Supreme Court committee was formed in January to decide on the scope of punishment following an inquiry by a separate committee that found the clubs and both officials guilty.
Meiyappan, who was detained for two weeks by Mumbai Police in 2013 over allegations of spot-­fixing, was cleared by a BCCI-appointed panel but a petition from the Cricket Association of Bihar led to the Bombay High Court declaring that panel “illegal and unconstitutional.”
The Cricket Association of Bihar then took the issue to the Supreme Court, which ordered an investigation into the conduct of Srinivasan and 12 others.
CAB official Aditya Verma welcomed the order but wanted the BCCI to do more on its own.
“The BCCI should file criminal cases against those found guilty,” he told reporters in New Delhi. “That is the only way it can show cricket lovers that they are serious about cleaning the game.”
The spot-fixing controversy erupted during the 2013 IPL competition when a group of Rajasthan players, including former test bowler Shantakumaran Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan, were arrested for allegedly conceding a pre-determined number of runs per over and receiving money in return from illegal bookmakers.
It was not immediately clear whether the contracted CSK or Rajasthan players will get to represent other teams.
Two-time champion Chennai is led by India’s limited-overs captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and also features explosive New Zealand batsman Brendon McCullum, West Indian allrounder Dwayne Bravo and South African batsman Faf du Plessis.
Former champion Rajasthan is led by Australia’s Steve Smith and includes India batsman Ajinkya Rahane and New Zealand pace bowler Tim Southee. C.Rajshekhar Rao, New Delhi, AP