N. Srinivasan not fit to run BCCI, Supreme Court wants Sunil Gavaskar

The Supreme Court has said it will pass an order on the Indian Premier League spot-fixing and betting scandal on Friday and has proposed that former India captain Sunil Gavaskar could take over as the interim chief of the Board of Control for Cricket in India in place of its embattled president N. Srinivasan.

Gavaskar told NDTV, "I will be happy to do what the Supreme Court asks me to do. I will feel honored."

The court on Thursday also suggested that Indian Premier League teams Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals should not be part of the seventh season beginning in the United Emirates on April 16, as they are being investigated in the case. Both teams are former champions, with Chennai winning the IPL twice.

The Supreme Court bench has also proposed that no one associated with Srinivasan's company India Cements should be part of the BCCI. India Cements owns CSK and it also employs Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Srinivasan is the Managing Director of Indian Cements. (Also read: By defying Supreme Court, Srinivasan has put his career in jeopardy, says former BCCI legal head)

The court has asked the Board to reply to its proposals on Friday.

On Tuesday, the court had said that N. Srinivasan should step down as BCCI president to ensure a fair inquiry into the IPL betting and match-fixing scandal and had given the Board two days to respond. The two-judge bench slammed what it called Srinivasan's  "nauseating" refusal to resign while allegations of illegal betting and spot-fixing involving his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan an official of the CSK, are being investigated.

A final order is expected on April 16, the day IPL 7 is scheduled to start. Mumbai Indians, the defending champions, will clash with Kolkata Knight Riders in the first match at Abu Dhabi.

In court on Thursday, the BCCI offered that Srinivasan could "step aside" while a time-bound inquiry was conducted in the case. It also appealed that Srinivasan be allowed to take over as the International Cricket Council's first chairman of the Executive Committee, come July. (Complete IPL spot-fixing timeline)

Harish Salve, who is representing petitioner Aditya Verma, secretary of the Cricket Association of Bihar, sought a criminal investigation into spot-fixing allegations and petitioned that the Chennai Super Kings team should be terminated.  

A court-appointed committee headed by retired High Court judge Justice Mukul Mudgal had on February 10 said that it had found the involvement of Meiyappan in the illegal betting case.  The committee had been set up by the Supreme Court in October last year.

The BCCI's lawyers on Thursday requested the judges to let the Board hold its own inquiry as recommended by the Mudgal report. "We will have to think hard for the benefit of cricket and then pass the order," the Supreme Court bench said.