Sunil Gavaskar Relieved of BCCI Duties by Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Friday relieved Sunil Gavaskar of his role as interim president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India's Indian Premier League affairs. On March 28, the former Test batsman was appointed by a Supreme Court bench after Board president N. Srinivasan was stood down in the wake of the IPL betting and match-fixing scandal involving his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan. (Also read: BCCI not sitting on a pot of money, says Srinivasan)

Gavaskar is now free to do his media assignments. While officiating on behalf of BCCI, the court had asked Gavaskar, a respected commentator, to stay away from media work. Last week, Gavaskar had written to the Supreme Court wanting to know his status because he was appointed till investigations into the IPL scandal were completed. A report from the Justice Mukul Mudgal committee is expected August-end.

The Supreme Court has now appointed a special bench consisting of Justice Ibrahim Kalifullah and T.S. Thakur to hear the IPL corruption case. The decision to relieve Gavaskar was taken by this bench on Friday. Kalifullah has been part of the IPL bench alongside now-retired Justice AK Patnaik.

The court decision will come as a relief for Gavaskar. The former Test captain has already started his media assignments. Gavaskar is an NDTV expert and he spoke about the James Anderson-Ravindra Jadeja row on Wednesday. He also previewed the second India versus England Test match at Lord's. Gavaskar even wrote about his (July 10) birthday celebrations in a leading newspaper.

Former Test spinner and senior Board vice-president Shivlal Yadav will continue to run BCCI's non-IPL affairs. Srinivasan will remain on the sidelines till the inquiry is completed. Srinivasan's tenure as BCCI president expires in September this year. The Supreme Court order will not affect Srinivasan's role as ICC chairman. (Also read: I Pray to God That Srinivasan Takes Over BCCI From Me, Says Shivlal Yadav)