This Article is From Jun 06, 2013

Jagmohan Dalmiya, interim chief, appoints Sanjay Patel as new BCCI secretary

Jagmohan Dalmiya, interim chief, appoints Sanjay Patel as new BCCI secretary
Mumbai: Jagmohan Dalmiya, who took over recently as the temporary chief of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), is putting a new team in place.  

This evening Mr Dalmiya announced that Sanjay Patel of the Baroda Cricket Association will be the new secretary, taking over from Sanjay Jagdale, who resigned in the midst of the current crisis spawned by spot-fixing and illegal betting in the Indian Premier League or IPL.

Mr Dalmiya said he would announce who would replace Ajay Shirke as treasurer in a day or two. But sources said T Venkatesh of the Karnataka cricket association is expected to take over. Mr Shirke, like Mr Jagdale, had resigned last Friday to pressure N Srinivasan to quit as BCCI president.

When he resigned, Mr Jagdale had also opted out of a three-member committee appointed by the board to conduct an inquiry into the scandal. Mr Dalmiya said that he would not be replaced on the panel, which would now be a two-member committee comprising two retired High Court judges, in whom, he said, "we repose faith."

The interim president also announced that the BCCI's working committee will meet in Delhi on Monday, June 10.

At an emergency meeting of the working committee on Sunday last, Mr Srinivasan, who has headed the BCCI since 2011, was forced to step aside as president while the internal investigation takes place. His son-in-law, Gurunath Meiyappan, was released from jail on bail earlier this week. Mr Meiyappan is an executive of the Chennai Super Kings, the IPL team from Tamil Nadu. He has been accused of allegedly passing information to bookies and placing bets on the IPL.

Mr Dalmiya, former BCCI and International Cricket Council president, is conducting the day-to- day affairs of the board during Mr Srinivasan's absence.

Three players from the IPL team, the  Rajasthan Royals, have also been arrested and have denied  deliberately bowling badly in specific IPL matches in exchange for pay-offs from bookies.  

Raj Kundra, who is a part owner of the Royals and is married to actor Shilpa Shetty, has confessed to placing bets worth one crores in the last three years, according to the Delhi Police, which interrogated him for 10 hours yesterday.

Mr Dalmiya said the police's allegations about Mr Kundra would be discussed at Monday's meeting and "if it demands any strict action, we will look into it."

Spot-fixing, in which a specific part of the match but not the outcome is fixed, is illegal. Betting on the IPL is also illegal under India's laws which ban gambling on all sports except horse-racing.
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