Madras HC orders notice to BCCI, Union home ministry after IPS officer moves it to stall IPL

CHENNAI: With the much awaited Indian Premier League (IPL) -2018 scheduled to begin on April 7, the Madras high court on Wednesday ordered notice to the Union home ministry and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on a plea moved by IPS officer G Sampathkumar seeking to restrain the BCCI from conducting the season-11 of the IPL, in the absence of preventive measures and infrastructure to prevent match fixing and betting.
Noting that though the apprehensions raised by the petitioner are bona fide, the court wondered how the game could be stalled just because there was the possibility of match fixing and other offences.
To this, Sampathkumar submitted that his intention was not to stall the game and agreed to amend the prayer accordingly.
This apart, noting that it could not be denied that such offences were still in existence, the bench said, “We are not sure what preventive measures can be brought in to check them.”
"We have laws, including the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, to prevent corruption. But can we say that corruption does not exist in the society?," the bench said and posted the plea to April 13 fir further hearing.
Sampathkumar said as an investigating officer from Chennai, he was instrumental in exposing 2013 spot fixing and betting in IPL matches.
“Contrary to the Lodha Committee report, vested interests still continue to be protected in the IPL and the questions of conflict of interest remain unaddressed by the BCCI,” Sampathkumar said.
This apart, the BCCI do not have any system of accountability in performance of its anti-corruption unit and do not have database of earnings of its players nor about bookies, fixers and kingpins of illegal betting, according to him.
“Similarly, the BCCI do not have a preventive action or measure against a person committing the offence of sporting fraud in relation to a sport event like the IPL, where he directly manipulates or wilfully fails to perform to his true potential for economic or any other advantage,” he added.