Mumbai: A period of 365 days has passed since the cricket board of India set a committee comprising of two members to look into investigating a $900,000 (Rs 6 crore) payment made to an investigative agency based in London; but the panel being unable to meet in the span of a year has raised doubts on the intention’s of the sports body, regarding tackling the issue.
At the Annual General Meeting held in November 2015, some of the BCCI officials were reportedly displeased on learning of the fees remitted in favor of the agency, PPS, and alleged that the administration led by ex-chief N Srinivasan wanted to ‘watergate’ their communication channels post-the IPL spot fixing scandal which came under the radar in 2013. Following which the Board authorized secretary Ajay Shirke and vice-president Gokaraju Gangaraju of Andhra Pradesh to look into the issue. The 2 member commitee were tasked with investigating the payment of nearly a million USD, when Shivlal Yadav, a former India spinner, stepped in as interim chief after N Srinivasan was ordered to resign by the Supreme Court Of India, during the 2013 fixing scandal.
“After the initial stage when the committee was formed, we have not been able to meet even once to discuss it. Sometimes, when he (Shirke) is available, I am not. When I am available, he is not. But we are looking to soon meet and find a solution. We had asked for the documents from Sanjay Patel (then secretary) and they are with Mr Shirke,” revealed Gangaraju
Patel was also heard stating that the payment wasn’t a big deal. “We hire so many software companies. As far as I know, this PPS was also hired for its software services,”
Secretary of the unaffiliated Cricket Association of Bihar, Ajay Verma who was the one to have filed the petition against Srinivasan in SC at the begining, has alleged in a letter to the CJI Lodha Committee and Shirke both, that the British security company in question could also have violated the confidential communications between judges of the SC as well as the members of the court appointed Lodha panel.
Verma has alleged that the BCCI appointed panel is incompetent to deal with the task given to them and expressed that the probe be handed over to a government agency to investigate, instead.