Sanjay Patel named BCCI secretary

Baroda Cricket Association joint secretary Sanjay Patel has been appointed as the BCCI secretary, replacing Sanjay Jagdale, who resigned last Friday. The other high-profile BCCI post which fell vacant last week, that of the treasurer, is yet to be filled.

Patel, a practising chartered accountant, has been involved in cricket administration for over a decade. He is currently a member of the IPL governing council and the BCCI's finance committee. Besides being a member of various sub-committees of the Baroda Cricket Association, he has also served as vice-president of the association.

Jagmohan Dalmiya, the interim in-charge of the BCCI, announced Patel's appointment at a press conference in Kolkata. At the conference, he also said that the board's next working committee meeting will be held on June 10 to discuss the alleged involvement of Rajasthan Royals co-owner, Raj Kundra, in betting on IPL matches. Delhi Police said Kundra had confessed to betting in IPL matches after questioning him at their Special Cell Office for nearly 12 hours on Wednesday.

"Raj Kundra issue will be discussed in the Working Committee, which is going to be held on June 10 and after we hear the details," Dalmiya said. "If it demands any strict action, we will look into it."

Dalmiya also said the three-member inquiry commission from which Jagdale stepped down will now have only the two former high court judges - Justice T Jayaram Chouta and Justice R Balasubramanian. There will be no BCCI official in the commission which will look into the complaints against India Cements, the owners of Chennai Super Kings, Gurunath Meiyappan, the Super Kings official arrested on charges of alleged betting, and Jaipur IPL Pvt Ltd, the owners of Rajasthan Royals.

"I have decided that let there be a two-man commission," Dalmiya said. "We repose full faith in the two retired judges and leave the matter to them."

Meanwhile, a one-man commission of Ravi Sawani, the head of the BCCI ACSU, who was handed the responsibility of conducting an inquiry into the arrest of three Rajasthan Royals players on charges of spot-fixing, submitted his preliminary report to the BCCI. The Supreme Court had directed the BCCI to complete the initial inquiry by June 6 and then follow their internal procedures.

Sawani's findings will now be passed on to the BCCI's disciplinary committee. However, considering that Srinivasan is a member of the disciplinary committee along with Arun Jaitley and Niranjan Shah, either Srinivasan will be replaced from the committee or a new disciplinary committee will be formed exclusively for conducting the inquiry into IPL corruption scandal.