File photo of Chennai Super Kings during happier days. (Image for representational purposes only)
© BCCI
Should and will the Chennai Super Kings franchise be scrapped? The matter has been in the realm of speculation since May 2013 when its team principal - Gurunath Meiyappan - was arrested for betting.
Almost� 21 months later, the judgment is out. But it has once again been sent for review, this time to a three-member bench comprising of former Supreme Court judges RM Lodha, Ashok Bhan and RV Raveendran.� N. Srinivasan, the owner of the franchise, is not a fan of DRS or the decision review system. But this time, he is left with no option, but to wait for the review decision.
The Supreme Court, while delivering its verdict said that the three judges will decide the quantum of punishment for the franchises and not just the officials. So does that mean the fans have to bear the brunt of the blights of the errant officials?
Justice TS Thakur, who will be the next Chief Justice of India, does not have any reservation about the Indian Premier League teams or the IPL format but the bench is miffed with the way IPL allowed sporting fraud, and how Srinivasan's duties as a father-in-law took precedence over his role as the BCCI president.
Now, with the verdict having been delivered, the Chennai Super King cannot contest this version.
Srinivasan described Gurunath as a sports enthusiast but that may well be a description for him.� There are tales of him showing respect to men who played the 'gentlemen's game' in yesteryears. He knew that they played for passion and not for profits. There is a story of him generously signing a cheque of Rs 50 lakh for a widow of a cricketer who did not make the minimum cut of having played a certain number of Tests for India, to be eligible for the one time pension. The money came out of his own coffers and not that of the BCCI.
It is that kind of passion that made him buy the team in 2007?
That year, the BCCI changed its rules and the India Cements Limited Board passed a resolution to buy the Chennai Super Kings team for Rs 360 Crore.
Years later, a BCCI official admitted, "N Srinivasan,� a canny businessman saw an opportunity to foray into North India. And Chennai Super Kings was his biggest publicity vehicle."
In seven years, the brand value of the franchise� has grown to about Rs 800 Crore. According to Brand Finance, it is one of the top 150 sports teams across the World. So, while Srinivasan's power as a sports administrator grew, his coffers also swelled. Chennai Super Kings helped him garner the gaze of the media as his company's share value also moved north.
Incidentally, on Thursday, after Srinivasan was cleared of charges of corruption and a cover up, the ICL shares surged by 12% but the markets had shut by the time the final judgment was out. So the experts expect a course correction.
While most can debate whether Chennai deserves to play or not, make no mistake that it has few of the best limited over specialists in its arsenal.� A decision at the last moment could well rob fans of the delight of seeing Mahendra Singh Dhoni or Suresh Raina's towering sixes.
The only hope now is, with Srinivasan and Gurunath's fate all but sealed, that the franchise might just get away with a penalty and the fans can get their share of joy.
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