Betting and abuse of power
In 2013, under the massive Indian Premier League Spot fixing controversy, N. Srinivasan's son-in-law and CSK team principal Gurunath Meiyappan was arrested by Mumbai Police under the involvement in heavy betting and trading of inside information to bookies.[10] Despite media and national outrage asking for his resignation, he remained defiant.[30] But ultimately, he stepped aside on 2 June 2013 and appointed Jagmohan Dalmiya as the interim president. On 27 September, Supreme Court restrained him from holding the post of BCCI President until its further orders.[31] On 8 October 2013 Supreme Court allowed N. Srinivasan to take charge as BCCI president.[32][33]
As the president of BCCI he had controversial conflicting relations with Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who was then captain of both the Indian Men's Cricket Team and his IPL Franchise CSK. Srinivasan had and still has lots of conflicts of interests. He was at one point in time, the president of BCCI, the owner of CSK, a team in IPL, and also the owner of India cements, a firm in which he had appointed Dhoni as a vice-president. He also used his personal influence and power to halt Dhoni's being removed from captaincy, by interfering in what is supposed to be an independent decision of the national selectors.[34][35]
On 10 February 2014, a report submitted by the retired High Court Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal-led committee, accused Srinivasan's son-in-law, Gurunath Meiyappan of illegal betting and passing on sensitive match-related information to bookies during IPL 2013. The 170-page report also stated that his company, India Cements was liable for Meiyappan's actions and that the Chennai Super Kings franchise was in violation of the franchise agreement, which may result in the termination of the Indian Premier League franchise.[36][37][38][39][40] On 21 March, Meiyappan's voice was found to match a tapped phone conversation discussing match fixing activities[41]
On 25 March 2014 the Supreme Court of India ordered Srinivasan to step down as BCCI president so that a fair investigation may be conducted.[42][43][44][45][46] The court found it "nauseating" that he should hold on to the post despite various courts censuring him.[13]
On 27 November 2014 the Supreme Court said that his's conflict of interest was "obvious" as he also owned a team in the IPL, CSK. The court also asked BCCI if it was open to have a fresh poll for a new board without Srinivasan. On 29 March 2015, he gave away the Cricket World Cup trophy to the winning Australian team - an act that should have been performed by then ICC President Mustafa Kamal. Prior to the final, Kamal had made controversial statements regarding umpiring in the India-Bangladesh quarterfinals. In light of these comments, ICC reportedly had a meeting, and decided that Kamal would not be allowed to hand over the trophy. Srinivasan had also expressed his extreme unhappiness over Kamal's comments in the same meeting, causing an embarrassed Kamal to walk out of the final before the match even finished. He later quit his position as the president, and vowed to expose the people behind the "mischievousness".[47]
