NEW DELHI (TIP): The Supreme Court of India, on March 28, removed N. Srinivasan as BCCI chief and asked Sunil Gavaskar to take charge as an interim president for the duration of IPL 7. The Supreme Court said Sunil Gavaskar will be the interim president of BCCI only for managing affairs of the IPL. It also asked Gavaskar to get out of contractual obligations with BCCI for commentary.

The court also said that IPL matches of season 7 to go on as per schedule and it is not going to stop any team or player to participate in IPL. The court said Gavaskar will be compensated for the job of interim president by BCCI. However, BCCI on Friday told Supreme Court that Indian team skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni never made a statement that Gurunath Meiyappan was just a cricket enthusiast.

Pushed to the brink following the Supreme Court’s sweeping proposals to clean up the game, a beleaguered BCCI president N. Srinivasan found himself under intense pressure to step down with senior administrators and former players asking him to abide by the apex court’s suggestions. Srinivasan spent most part of the day at home in Chennai on Thursday having telephonic conferences with his legal experts and his close confidants in the BCCI but continued to maintain a stoic silence on the developments.

In a huge jolt for the Tamil Nadu strongman, the Supreme Court on Thursday, March 27, proposed the replacement of Srinivasan by former captain Sunil Gavaskar and suspension of franchises Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals from IPL 7 till the pendency of the betting and spot fixing case. The apex court also proposed to pass an order barring India Cements officials from getting involved with the functioning of BCCI. Soon after the court’s proposals, more pressure was put on Srinivasan to voluntarily step down from the president’s post with legends of the game like Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Bishan Singh Bedi and Kris Srikkanth asking him to abide by the apex court’s suggestions. BCCI vice-president Ravi Sawant, former secretary Niranjan Shah and former treasurer Ajay Shirke were among the administrators who urged him to quit in the interest of Indian cricket.