Will Chennai Super Kings become the Juventus of cricket?

Will Chennai Super Kings become the Juventus of cricket? Will the BCCI, who created the IPL and framed all the rules and clauses binding it, play by the book and sack its president, who owns the team? Jaideep Vaidya on the mother of all cricket fixing that is tearing Indian cricket apart.

Whether Gurunath Meiyappan (left) and N Srinivasan are both forced to quit their respective posts, this mother of all cricketing scandals draws distinct comparisons with the match-fixing scandal that hit Italy in 2006 more popularly known as Calciopoli © IANS

Will Chennai Super Kings become the Juventus of cricket? Will the BCCI, who created the IPL and framed all the rules and clauses binding it, play by the book and sack its president, who owns the team? Jaideep Vaidya on the mother of all cricket fixing that is tearing Indian cricket apart.

Kolkata, May 24, 2013. Around 11.30 pm. Mumbai Indians were chasing 166 against Rajasthan Royals at Eden Gardens for a spot in the final of the Indian Premier League (IPL). It was turning out to be a tight affair, with Mumbai blowing away a healthy advantage and slumping from 125 for one to 141 for five. Seen from a purely cricketing lens, the match was shaping up to be another one of the cracking thrillers that the league has so often thrown up in its six-year history. If only the on-field action was the only thing relevant.

Oblivious to the 22 men on the ground and thousands around Eden Gardens, certain developments were simultaneously taking place on the western coast of the country, in the city of Mumbai to be precise, that could potentially affect the result of the tournament and change Indian cricket forever. The Crime Branch of the Mumbai Police had finished its initial interrogation of a certain Gurunath Meiyappan — a name that had come to prominence in the country just over the last 48 hours.

This man was, until not too long ago, the Team Principal of the Chennai Super Kings — a designation which was since erased from his Twitter bio, the CSK website and perhaps everywhere in the public domain after India Cements, the company that owns the two-time championship-winning franchise, had released a statement claiming that Meiyappan is “neither the Owner, nor CEO / Team Principal of Chennai Super Kings” and is only “one of the Members (Honorary) of the Management Team”. Smart? Perhaps not, at least not in this digital age where screenshots and cache versions of web pages of his earlier designation were flashed across TV and computer screens faster than you could say, well, smart.

You wonder, why the shoddy attempt of a cover-up? What could he possibly have to hide? As it turns out, possibly a lot. Meiyappan is the son-in-law of the most powerful man in Indian cricket — N Srinivasan, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president. He was summoned by the Mumbai Crime Branch for questioning following a middleman’s alleged claims that Meiyappan is involved in betting, which is illegal in India. Meiyappan had landed in Mumbai after going absence without leave for the better part of Thursday and being threatened with an arrest warrant if he failed to show up. A few minutes before midnight on Friday, the Mumbai Police announced that Meiyappan had been arrested after they “found his involvement” in the betting case, and would ask the court for his custody first thing Saturday morning. And just like that, it all came crashing down.

The announcement realised the worst fears of the Indian cricket fan. The spot-fixing saga that had engulfed the nation for the last week was bearable upto the involvement of a has-been and a couple of inconsequential players. But now, the doors of the body that controls Indian cricket were being broken through. This development had potentially ended the sixth edition of the tournament which got the BCCI so many riches; it had seized the earth below the most powerful and influential cricket board in the world, propelling it towards a bottomless abyss. For all you know, by the time you read this, the Mumbai Indians would have been crowned default champions. Not that it would matter, considering the larger, murkier picture.

According to sub-clause ‘c’ of clause 11.3 of the franchise agreement signed by individual owners, the BCCI may “terminate this agreement with immediate effect with written notice if the Franchisee, any Franchisee Group Company and/or any Owner acts in any way which has a material adverse effect upon the reputation or standing of the League, BCCI-IPL, BCCI, the Franchisee, the Team (or any other team in the League) and/or the game of cricket.” To put it in a jiffy, Chennai Super Kings should be discarded from the tournament with immediate effect.

Whether this does happen before or after the final on Sunday, and whether Meiyappan and Srinivasan are both forced to quit their respective posts, this mother of all cricketing scandals draws distinct comparisons with the match-fixing scandal that hit Italy in 2006 — more popularly known as Calciopoli. It revolved around key figures in Italian football connected with the best of teams who were found out putting pressure on referees to affect the result of games. At the centre of the scandal were Juventus — 27-time champions of the premier Italian league and a team owned by the powerful Agnelli family that also has car manufacturer Fiat under their umbrella.

Not only were Juve stripped off their last two Serie A titles, they were relegated to the second division and had 30 points deducted from the ext season’s total, effectively ruling them out of promotion for at least two seasons. Fellow giants AC Milan were spared relegation, but handed a 15-point penalty, while Lazio and Fiorentina were both demoted to Serie B. Juve’s general manager, Luciano Moggi, was at the prime accused although he protested his innocence. Italian football federation (FIGC) president Franco Carraro and vice-president Innocenzo Mazzini also resigned, along with Juventus chairman Antonio Giraudo.

The question is: Will Chennai Super Kings become the Juventus of cricket? Will the BCCI, who created the IPL and framed all the rules and clauses binding it, play by the book and sack its president, who owns the team? One way or the other, the answers will be out soon enough.

Speaking for all Indian cricket fans who have lived and breathed the game ever since they can remember, and who have stood by the sport and the board through thick and thin, I want this ‘system’ cleansed once and for all. I, like millions of others, was deeply disturbed with last week’s revelations and though all the signs were there, I hoped and prayed that the board is clean, however much I despise its dictatorial tendencies. After the initial shock and disappointment, I see it as a means to a new beginning, the rise of a new dawn in Indian cricket. But that is possible only if the sun sets on the current gloomy horizon.

For the sake of Indian cricket, Chennai Super Kings should be disqualified from IPL 6 and offered to new bidders in an auction, as per the rule book. And if Srinivasan and Meiyappan have even an ounce of self-respect left in them, they know what to do.

(Jaideep Vaidya is a multiple sports buff and a writer at CricketCountry. He has a B.E. in Electronics Engineering, but that isn’t fooling anybody. He started writing on sports during his engineering course and fell in love with it. The best day of his life came on April 24, 1998, when he witnessed birthday boy Sachin Tendulkar pummel a Shane Warne-speared Aussie attack from the stands during the Sharjah Cup Final. A diehard Manchester United fan, you can follow him on Twitter @jaideepvaidya. He also writes a sports blog – The Mullygrubber )

Click here for the updates of IPL 2013 spot-fixing controversy

Will Chennai Super Kings become the Juventus of cricket?