Chennai: Rajasthan Royals will file a criminal complaint against their three cricketers arrested for spot-fixing even as a rattled BCCI said it would follow the book before handing down punishment to the tainted trio while unveiling measures to check corruption in the IPL.
Addressing a crowded press conference after a meeting of the Board’s Working Committee, BCCI President N Srinivasan promised to tackle strongest possible action against the players if they are found guilty.
The BCCI appointed its anti-corruption chief Ravi Sawani as the commissioner of inquiry and has told him to file his report “as soon as possible”.
“We also invited the Rajasthan Royals owners and management to attend the meeting and brief the Working Committee on this incident. We were informed that they intend to file a police complaint against the three players,” Srinivasan said.
“Everybody is innocent till proven guilty. The BCCI will not cover up for anybody but our actions must be fair. We will go through the process. If somebody is found guilty, we will act sternly,” he added.
“It (the inquiry) will be done very quickly, it is an internal inquiry, we might need some information from the police. Rest is upto Mr Sawani but it will be quickly done. We have to observe all channels of natural justice. We have rules and BCCI’s own system,” he stressed.
The IPL was dealt a massive blow when a special cell of the Delhi police arrested India pacer S Sreesanth and his Rajasthan Royals team mates – Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan – on Thursday for indulging in spot-fixing in at least three IPL matches as per arrangements with bookies who have underworld connections abroad.
In a bid to check corruption, the BCCI chief said the Board will appoint anti-corruption officer with each of the IPL franchises along with a security officer to monitor players’ movement.
He also said that the players’ agents will now be accredited by the Board.
Srinivasan said the Board did not have resources to tackle bookies and they could only monitor players.
The players, who have been suspended by the BCCI, have been charged under section 420 (cheating) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.
The Board has also suspended first-class cricketer Amit Singh, who is allegedly a bookmaker now and was arrested along with 10 other bookies on May 16.
Claiming that the Board has not received any information from the Delhi Police on the matter, Srinivasan said they would seek it during the course of the internal inquiry. We have to go by the rules applicable to players. We have also requested the police to provide information to complete our inquiry.
“We have also offered Delhi Police all our assistance in this regard,” he said.
Srinivasan continued to blame the individual players for the crisis.
“The mistake if at all is the greed of the players. We don’t encourage betting, we do not encourage anything. Betting is not legal in India, the police has to act,” he said. (PTI)