New Delhi, Oct 1 (IANS) While his father-in-law Narayanaswami Srinivasan calls him “just a cricket enthusiast”, Australian cricket star Mike Hussey has revealed that Gurunath Meiyappan, who is accused of betting in the lucrative Indian Premier League, was actually the man running the Chennai Super Kings franchise.
Hussey, in his book ‘Underneath the Southern Cross’, said it was Srinivasan, whose company India Cements owned Super Kings, who had handed the team’s control to Meiyappan.
“Our owner was Indian Cements, headed by Mr Srinivasan,” Hussey wrote in his book. “As he was also on the board of the BCCI, he gave control of the team to his son-in-law Mr Gurunath. He ran the team along with Kepler Wessels, who was coach.”
The revelation by Hussey come at a time when Meiyappan, along with Pakistani umpire Asad Rauf and Bollywood actor Vindu Dara Singh have been charged by Mumbai police in the betting scandal that rocked the IPL after three cricketers were arrested on charges of spot-fixing. Meiyappan was arrested by the Mumbai police in May and was named in the betting charge-sheet.
Srinivasan was quick to distance himself from his son-in-law saying that “he was just a cricket enthusiast”.
But Meiyappan was always a prominent member of the team management and was always spotted in the team dugout and at auction tables. Meiyappan also identified himself as the team principal on his Twitter account.
Meiyappan and Super Kings were given a clean chit by the two-member probe panel that was set-up by the BCCI after the scandal broke out. But it was termed unconstitutional and illegal by the Mumbai High Court.
Srinivasan has also been restrained by the Supreme Court from taking charge as BCCI president despite being elected unopposed. The Supreme Court will again hear the matter next Monday.