Dubai: One cannot write off N. Srinivasan, the former Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President and International Cricket Council (ICC) chairman. At a time when the odds are heavily stacked against him in even being the head of Tamil Nadu Cricket Association as per the Supreme Court appointed Lodha committee orders, Srinivasan is busy garnering support to regain the ICC chairman’s post again.
It is understood that Srinivasan has garnered support from a large number of BCCI’s state units to back him to represent in the ICC. A special general meeting of the BCCI’s state units scheduled for April 9 will give a clearer picture on Srinivasan return to ICC.
Srinivasan had to give way for Shashank Manohar as ICC chairman after being submerged in the IPL 2013 scandal in which Srinivasan’s son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan, who as Chennai Super Kings team principal, was alleged to have indulged in betting. Srinivasan had become the first chairman of the ICC on June 26, 2014 but lost his position on November 9, 2015.
The state units are supposed to propose Srinivasan’s name to ICC as they believe that only he can regain the bargaining powers of India in the ICC. During Manohar’s term as ICC chairman he had started the process of bringing the game’s governing body back to it old revenue model where the Big Three — India Australia and England — will no longer have the maximum pie of the ICC earnings. Srinivasan was instrumental in launching the Big Three revenue plan where India was supposed to get major share of international cricket revenue.
Interestingly, Srinivasan is understood to have also garnered support from some of the Test playing nations to support his plans if he returns to power at the ICC. Though state units are willing to back Srinivasan it has to be seen whether he can tide over the instruction of the Lodha committee which prevents cricket administrators to be in power after the age of 70. Srinivasan who is 72 years old will be eyeing ICC and not BCCI and hence may get cleared. The very fact that the Committee of Administrators (CoA) appointed by Supreme Court has allowed state units to hold a special meeting has given Srinivasan some hope.
The CoA chief Vinod Rai may even allow state units to clear Srinivasan’s name for ICC if proposed by the majority of state units as he knows that Srinivasan can understand the various intricacies in the ICC to get a greater share of revenue for the BCCI.
Speaking at the Madras Advertising Club awards function yesterday, Srinivasan even announced that Chennai Super Kings would be back next season (in 2018) with a bang and that Mahendra Singh Dhoni would lead the team again.
