Governing council to create IPL well-being panel: Rajiv Shukla

The Lodha panel, in a landmark decision yesterday, suspended Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals from the Indian Premier League (IPL) for two years in the 2013 spot fixing and betting scandal.

The panel also banned Gurunath Meiyappan – the son-in-law of Narayanaswami Srinivasan, the Chennai franchise owner and the boss of the worldwide Cricket Council – for life from cricket-related activities. The storm was triggered by the suspension of CSK and RR and their top officials Gurunath Meiyappan and Raj Kundra.

“Any agony suffered by him because of media coverage or any hardship that may have been caused to him is too small in comparison to the huge injury he caused to the reputation and image of the game, IPL and BCCI”, Justice Lodha said.

While the suspension of the Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals from the next two editions has thrown the Indian Premier League (IPL) into turmoil, former players, administrators and commentators said the move would strengthen the glitzy Twenty20 tournament in the long run.

Tim Southee is one of three New Zealand players affected by the impending two-year bans of their IPL franchises.

BCCI running two teams may not be economically viable since the entire cost of managing the team and playing the players their salaries will have to be borne by the Board.

Several BCCI members are highly irked with the fact how one man’s stubbornness led the board to this situation.

Justice Lodha’s punishment of the erring owners has gone beyond the general expectation of asking them to cough up a few crores of rupees as fine and not what he said an “exemplary punishment to restore the faith of the people in the IPL and cricket”.

Former BCCI president Inderjit Bindra posted tweets saying Srinivasan should not be allowed to continue as ICC chairman because he’d tried to protect Meiyappan and the Super Kings. Although there is no word on the six players who were mentioned in Justice Mukul Mudgal’s sealed envelope to the Supreme Court, the Lodha committee put the game before everything else.

Asked why the committee did not itself ban the franchises, Lodha said that would have exceeded its remit. These two teams will not have to pay the annual franchise fees to the board.

India Cements has indicated that they will go to the Supreme Court seeking a review.

Rajasthan Royals won the inaugural event in 2008 under the captaincy of Australian spin legend Shane Warne, but have failed to make the final since then. The committee will share its observations further after interacting with various stakeholders involved in the game.

The two of them have been barred from any association with BCCI for five years and from cricket matches for life. That exercise is not complete.

Australia’s Test vice-captain Steve Smith, writing for cricket.com.au, said he was disappointed his franchise had been suspended and would now reconsider whether to seek a new club – and likely big-money deal – for next year’s tournament.