Srinivasan to snap ties with CSK: Reports

N Srinivasan has decided to disassociate himself from the Chennai Super Kings franchise following the Supreme Court's ban on BCCI office bearers having any commercial interests in the board's activities. Sources to TNN said that in a meeting of the board's key functionaries on Saturday, Srinivasan apparently told BCCI members that he would keep himself out of the CSK team.

Srinivasan's family has majority stakes in India Cements, the parent company of CSK. Earlier, he had de-merged CSK from the company and made it into a seperate subsidiary in the hope that the court would give him an option to choose between the IPL franchise and his position in the BCCI.

Apparently, Srinivasan informed the office bearers that he wants to be in the fray for the elections. He decided to cut ties with CSK in order to concentrate on contesting the BCCI elections. In the recent verdict of the Supreme Court, it stated, "A person cannot contest the election till such time the person concerned holds commercial interest (in the board) or till the three-member panel (probing charges of betting on IPL matches against CSK and Rajasthan Royals and their owners Gurunath Meiyappan and Raj Kundra) considers and awards suitable punishment to those liable for the same, whichever is later."

The SC verdict struck down the clause in the BCCI constitution that had earlier allowed BCCI members to have commercial interests in the IPL. The court had directed the BCCI to contest the polls within six weeks. However, the last three words, "whichever is later" has put Srinivasan's ambitions on ice. The three-member panel of former Chief Justice of India, RM Lodha and the other two judges, Ashok Bhan and RV Ravindran have been given six months to submit their findings and decide on the quantum of punishment on CSK and Rajasthan Royals.