NEW DELHI: The government on Friday said a probe by a parliamentary panel into the financial dealings of Indian Premier League (IPL) could be considered even as battle lines were drawn in the cricket administration ahead of a meeting on April 26.

The day started with news that former president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Mr A C Muthiah, has moved the Supreme Court, challenging the norms that permit office bearers to hold franchises for IPL.
Soon after, when the two Houses of Parliament convened, there were heated exchanges over the IPL saga between the members of the treasury and the opposition, with the latter demanding a probe by a joint parliamentary committee. The Union ministers, Mr Sharad Pawar and Mr Praful Patel came in the line of fire with the opposition demanding that only a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe will have credibility as there were allegations of involvement of two ministers in the controversy.
The Prime Minister will take a final call on the issue of constituting a JPC to probe the IPL controversy. A decision to this effect was taken in Congress Core Group Meeting chaired by party president Ms Sonia Gandhi. The meeting among other issues also discussed how to ensure the smooth passage of the Finance Bill. All other members of the party’s top decision making body including the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, Home Minister, Mr P Chidambaram, Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, Defence Minister, Mr A K Antony and Ms Gandhi’s political secretary, Mr Ahmed Patel were present at the meeting. “Government will decide,” was the cryptic reply by a top party leader after the Core Group meeting here. Highly placed sources in the party said that Mr Mukherjee briefed the Congress president and Prime Minister about the issue in detail. Congress sources said that the party has not arrived at any decision on the issue yet and that it is for the government to take a view on it.
Embattled IPL commissioner Mr Lalit Modi on Friday urged the BCCI to give him just five days to prepare answer for all the questions in lieu of his five-year long services and he is unlikely to move court against IPL’s governing council meet on April 26. “I have worked for you for five years... Give me just five days to prepare answers to all the questions,” Mr Modi communicated to BCCI, sources close to him said. Mr Modi is believed to have argued that the IPL final would be played on April 25 and hence he would not have time to prepare for the Governing Council meeting the next day. The BCCI had made it clear that it would go ahead with the meeting on Monday, saying that Mr Srinivasan was empowered to convene the meeting.
Meanwhile, according to a NDTV report, 27 cricketers are being investigated for match-fixing during IPL2. In a report submitted to the Finance Ministry, income tax officials also discuss allegations of betting involving IPL commissioner Mr Lalit Modi, says the report. The owners of different IPL teams have expressed their unhappiness with reports of match-fixing; they want clarifications as soon as possible, the report further states. Mr Jay Mehta, co-owner of the Kolkata Knight Riders, told NDTV, “If the match-fixing reports are correct, I will fight with Modi.” Mr Mehta described Mr Modi as a friend, and the reason he invested in the IPL. He also said Mr Modi alone is responsible for the success of the IPL, but is now being made the scapegoat for the financial crisis engulfing the sport. Mr Lalit Modi has dismissed the match-fixing charges, saying this was the biggest fiction of all.
On a day I-T officials intensified its probe into IPL affairs, top BCCI representatives responded to summons and furnished to the department details of share holding pattern, player auction and bidding process of all eight original IPL franchises. “The BCCI has complied with the summons and submitted the documents relating to its original eight franchisees,” an I-T official closely involved in the exercise, informed.
IPL’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Sundar Raman represented the Cricket Board and some officials of the International Management Group, the event managing company which organises the T20 extravaganza, were also present. There was no official word on what transpired during the interaction between IPL officials and IT investigators. The summons were issued on April 16 and the deadline was to end on Friday.
In Kolkata, the I-T department issued notices to Knight Riders Sports Private Limited and the Gameplan Sports to appear before it in connection with the recent search operations at the offices of the two entities. In Mumbai, I-T officials surveyed the offices of Kings XI Punjab and scoured documents relating to monetary transactions with IPL. Income Tax sleuths also visited the Mohali office of the team but said it did not find anything incriminating. According to I-T sources, the BCCI was asked to produce the bidding documents of all eight franchises, details of ownership/shareholding of each franchise, names, addresses of individuals, entities owning the franchise and their contract with the IPL.
Meanwhile, BCCI’s top brass boycotted the inaugural IPL Awards Night held at a suburban hotel in Mumbai on Friday evening in the wake of the spat with IPL commissioner, Mr Lalit Modi. BCCI president, Mr Shashank Manohar, secretary Mr N Srinivasan, and IPL vice-chairman Mr Niranjan Shah stayed away from the event while team owners Mr Vijay Mallya (Royal Challengers Bangalore), Ms Preity Zinta (Kings XI Punjab), Ms Shilpa Shetty and Mr Raj Kundra (Rajasthan Royals), Ms Gayatri Reddy (Deccan Chargers) and Mr Jay Mehta (Kolkata Knight Riders) turned up.
The entire Governing Council, barring Sunil Gavaskar, also shunned the event though most of the players came to attend the ceremony. The Awards Night, to honour the best-performing players in the IPL over the last month and a half, was a Bollywood-style entertainment extravaganza in which Shah Rukh Khan and Karan Johar were the co-hosts. Among the team owners, Mr Vijay Mallya stopped for a brief interaction with the mediapersons in which he rubbished match-fixing allegations and said people should wait till the probe is over. “I don’t know who is talking about all these match-fixing,” said the liquor and aviation tycoon. Mr Mallya rather found fault with the politicians who, he alleged, were raising an “unnecessary storm.” “I think there has been lot of drama, hype and sensationalism. I would say this is uncalled for.”