Srinivasan's ICC presence to be challenged

The Cricket Association of Bihar, the plaintiff in the IPL case before the Supreme Court, is to take up before the court the matter of N Srinivasan representing the BCCI at the ICC. The matter is likely to be taken up on April 29, when the Supreme Court bench hearing the IPL case reassembles.

Srinivasan, who has been replaced by the court as board president, was named the BCCI's representative to the ICC last September. However, that position could be changed given that he no longer holds a position on the board. The Supreme Court has so far not expressed an opinion on this specific issue.

"We are going to press for barring Srinivasan from representing BCCI at the ICC. We have already made a prayer in front of the court," Nalini Chidambaram, one of the senior most lawyers on the CAB's legal team, told ESPNcricinfo.

Despite the Supreme Court forcing him to step aside, Chidambaram said, Srinivasan's insistence that he was free to be part of ICC, was akin to "a man who is not fit to be a High Court judge but he wants to be a Supreme Court judge."

	Srinivasan's insistence that he was free to be part of ICC, was akin to "a man who is not fit to be a High Court judge but he wants to be a Supreme Court judge"

Chidambaram explained that her client had made five prayers in the Bombay High Court last year when the CAB, represented by its secretary Aditya Verma, first approached the courts. The first plea was to set aside the BCCI-appointed two-judge panel to probe the corruption allegations that surfaced during last year's IPL. It was a shot in the arm for Verma when the Bombay High Court ruled in CAB's favour. But the High Court did not agree with his second prayer, that he wanted an independent panel to be appointed. The court instead wanted the BCCI to appoint another panel.

According to Chidambaram the other pleas were: Srinivasan should not represent India at ICC meetings, he should not be the BCCI president, terminate Chennai Super Kings franchise and he should also not be part of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association, for which he is the president.

"Those prayers were not pressed in the Bombay High Court. But we have renewed it now in the Supreme Court," Chidambaram said.

Last month, after the Supreme Court passed an interim order asking Srinivasan to step aside, one of the immediate questions was whether he could attend the ICC meetings. Although the court had stated at the time it was an "internal matter," the answer was provided by Srinivasan when he attended the ICC's executive board meeting on April 9 and 10 in Dubai.

Srinivasan's position in the ICC, as one of its directors, can be questioned under various ICC regulations in the light of the Supreme Court observations and orders around the BCCI's handling of the IPL 2013 corruption case. Yet there has been complete silence on the part of the ICC, as well as the other nine Full Members.

Nagraj Gollapudi is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo

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