Bad days for cricket: Board vice president

Kolkata, June 1 (IANS) Iterating that Indian cricket was passing through “bad days” due to people lacking in morality, a senior board vice president Saturday said he had not received any request to resign and was instead adopting a “wait and watch” policy ahead of Sunday’s working committee meeting.

Amid speculation that he and other four vice presidents of the Board of Control for Cricket in India were contemplating resignation to put pressure on president N. Srinivasan to put in his papers in the wake of the spot fixing scandal in which his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan has been arrested, Chitrak Mitra said: “Nobody has telephoned me or talked to me on this (resignation). I haven’t got any such information.”

“The working committee meeting has been convened. The matter will be discussed there,” Mitra, who became BCCI vice president in 2011, said here.

Asked whether he was planning to quit following in the footsteps of secretary Sanjay Jagdale and treasurer Ajay Shirke, Mitra said: “I’ll see what others do. It’s a wait and watch policy.”

However, he said the working committee needed to find a way out of the stalemate as the twin resignations had left the board in a situation where even cheques could not be signed.

“This (situation) cannot carry on for a long time,” said Mitra.

Asked about the developments pertaining to the spot fixing scandal, he said: “Definitely, these are bad days for Indian cricket…If people are lured, and they don’t have any morality, this will happen. If you don’t have any morality, this will happen.”

The Indian Premier League spot fixing scandal came to light May 16 after Delhi police arrested three Rajasthan Royals cricketers S. Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila from Mumbai alongside 11 bookies.

Later, former Rajasthan Royals player Amit Singh, actor Vindoo Dara Singh and Chennai Super Kings Chief Executive Officer Meiyanath were arrested in connection with the scam, which has rocked Indian cricket.

With the sponsors, cricket loving public and the media clamouring for Srinivasan’s scalp, the BCCI chief has steadfastly refused to budge, saying he has “done no wrong”.

However, things seem to be fast turning against Srinivasan following the resignations of Jagdale and Shirke.

The working committee meeting Sunday is scheduled to discuss the entire gamut of spot fixing scandal and its fall out.

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