In wake of the spot-fixing and betting scandal, which led to the arrest of three Rajasthan cricketers apart from Chennai's franchise's team Principal Gurunath Meiyappan, Indian T20 League Chairman Rajeev Shukla has resigned from his from post. Shukla becomes the third person to resign from a BCCI post after the Board's treasurer Ajay Shirke and Secretary Sanjay Jagdale tended their resignations on May 31.
A day before the emergency meeting of the working committee in Chennai, Shukla took the decision to quit saying that he felt it necessary to do so in the light of the recent developments.
"I have decided to quit as Indian T20 League chairman. It is a decision which I was pondering over for some time. I think it is time to step down," Shukla told PTI.
Shukla said that he also took into account the resignations of Jagdale and Shirke before taking the decision to step down.
"Sanjay Jagdale and Ajay Shirke resigned in the best interest of Indian cricket. I thought this is the right time," he said.
"I was given the task of Indian T20 League chairmanship which I tried to perform to the best of my abilities. The tournament was organized well despite all the controversies. The stadiums were jam-packed which proved that the Indian T20 League was still popular," Shukla said.
He said that he never hankered for any position and was only discharging the responsibilities given to him.
"I have never hankered for any position in the BCCI. I will serve cricket in whatever role I am given," he said.
Shukla's resignation just a day ahead of the emergency working committee meeting in Chennai is bound to put more pressure on under-fire Srinivasan to quit from the president's post.
Backroom negotiations were on to find an honourable exit for the 68-year-old cricket administrator who is said to be setting some conditions before he resigns after his isolation in the wake of arrest of his son-in-law Maiyappan over betting charges.
The name of former BCCI President Shashank Manohar, a non-controversial figure whom Srinivasan had succeeded two years ago, is doing the rounds to fill the gap as interim President.
The possibility of regular elections in September cannot be ruled out when the term of Srinivasan will come to an end.
Now that the endgame is near for him, Srinivasan is said to be asking for acceptance of three demands, including his reinstatement if he comes out clean after the probe in Gurunath's case, that he should represent India in ICC meetings and that Jagdale and Shirke should not be in the new panel as they had "ditched" him.
But Board sources said members were not in a position to accept his conditions, especially the one relating to Jagdale and Shirke on the ground that they have not done any wrong and the next President had all the discretion to reject their resignations.
However, the demand that he should be allowed to represent BCCI in ICC meetings could be considered as a concession to him.
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