Thaindian News

Mumbai, July 2 (IANS) A Special General Meeting (SGM) Saturday of the Indian cricket board will discuss in detail the replies by the suspended Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman Lalit Modi to notices issued to him.
Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary N. Srinivasan has rejected Modi’s voluminous replies to the show-cause notices as “unsatisfactory” and referred the matter to the disciplinary committee.

The SGM is expected to “ratify the action of Srinivasan,” and the development has drawn flak from the Modi camp.

Modi had asked Srinivasan and BCCI president Shashank Manohar to recuse themselves from the proceedings, having levelled a series of counter-charges against the two.

Manohar, therefore, pulled himself out of the three-member disciplinary panel, which now includes new IPL chairman Chirayu Amin and Arun Jaitley as the other two members.

One among the agenda for the meeting would be to re-constitute the disciplinary panel for holding the enquiry against Modi.

It is understood that BCCI has called the SGM to sack Modi. The SGM would require a three-fourths majority to expel a board official. Srinivasan, however, said the BCCI will give Modi a fair trial and follow all the procedures.

“The general body is going to meet and there are two agendas. One is to rectify the action of the secretary in referring this to the disciplinary committee. In that case, we would re-constitute the disciplinary committee in which (BCCI president) Mr. Shashank Manohar recused himself,” Srinivasan had told a television channel.

“The general body is going to decide whether my action in referring it to the disciplinary committee is approved or not approved. If they approve, then the second part comes, in which the disciplinary committee would be re-constituted. Then they would have to hold a hearing and follow due process and then their report would again come to general body,” he said.

The BCCI members have been provided with copies of Modi’s reply to three showcause notices.

Modi’s counsel Mehmood Abdi said they are watching the developments and would take “appropriate action at an appropriate time”.

Modi had been charged on several counts ranging from financial irregularities to bid- rigging as chairman of the cash-rich IPL.

Modi, who was backed by BCCI vice president Farooq Abdullah and Bangalore Royal Challengers owner Vijay Mallya when the IPL controversy surfaced, would find the going tough as his support base has quickly waned.

Abdullah, after the meeting of IPL governing council meeting last month, said the IPL board has found that Modi was involved in major irregularities. Mallya, on his part, looked the other way when asked about Modi during the IPL owners meeting with BCCI and said they will have to think beyond him.