Cricket’s controversial new king Narayanaswami Srinivasan to usher in new era for Big Three

CRICKET’S controversial new king will reveal in Melbourne on Thursday how he proposes to reign over the game.

President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), N. Srinivasan addresses a press conference in Kolkata on May 26, 2013. The son-in-law of India's cricket board chief was on Sunday suspended from "any involvement" in the sport pending an inquiry into his role in a spot-fixing scandal, officials said. AFP PHOTO

CRICKET’S controversial new king will reveal in Melbourne on Thursday how he proposes to reign over the game, presumably with corruption one of the most pressing issues on his agenda.

The cricket world will be all ears given that the man who will now be the most powerful figure cricket has seen, Indian industrialist Narayanaswami Srinivasan, is a central figure in a corruption investigation himself.

The revamped International Cricket Council’s board will install Srinivasan as chairman at its annual conference and he will meet the media afterwards — with no shortage of questions to answer.

The wealthy businessman — he is managing director of India Cements — is president of the Indian cricket board, but has been suspended from that role by the Supreme Court while an investigation is carried out into allegations of corruption at the Chennai Super Kings Twenty20 franchise, which he owns.

His son-in-law, Gurunath Meiyappan, is facing criminal charges relating to one of cricket’s most alarming problems, illegal betting.

Despite these obvious conflicts, and the unease it has caused among some member countries, Srinivasan’s ascension to the top job is not being formally resisted.

Cricket Australia chairman Wally Edwards and his English counterpart Giles Clark have argued that India was set to walk away from the ICC in frustration that it generates about three-quarters of the game’s income but does not have enough say in where it goes.

The result is that India, Australia and England will now dominate a radical restructure which will give the Big Three more money and influence, and control of a new executive committee which will make the important decisions.

Nobody seriously disputes that Srinivasan’s coup is a bad look but his supporters say that losing India altogether would be worse.

Edwards said earlier this week he was confident Srinivasan “can play an important role in strengthening world cricket,” but has sought assurances from him that there will be no unexpected embarrassments when the Indian investigation is completed.

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Originally published as Cricket’s controversial new king Narayanaswami Srinivasan to usher in new era for Big Three