CSK, RR suspended from IPL for two years

The Supreme court of India appointed Lodha panel has suspended IPL franchises Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals for two years after being charged in connection with the betting and spot-fixing scandals in the IPL.

Both IPL teams will not be able to participate in any IPL event for next two year. The committee also banned Gurunath Meiyappan and Raj Kundra for life from all BCCI-related cricket activities. Both of them were charged with the involvement in betting activities during IPL 2013. Players of the banned  franchises will not be affected with this ban and are still free to be a part of any of the remaining teams if chosen.

"The players are free. They will not be attached to a particular team of the franchise that is suspended. We thought that cricket is bigger than individuals and body andindividuals, then the financial loss to players and franchises is not of significance," Justice Lodha said.

The decision was taken based on the findings of the Mukul Mudgal panel. A committee was formed by the Supreme court of India comprising former Chief Justice of India, RM Lodha and ex-judges Ashok Bhan and RV Raveendran to define "the quantum of punishment, if any, to be imposed on Gurunath Meiyappan and Raj Kundra and also their respective franchises."

Justice Mukul Mudgal said that the decision has been taken for the best of the IPL. This may cause a temporary setback, but will have a positive long-term impact on players, administrators & others. "There will be a temporary setback but the game of cricket will be back cleaner. People will have more faith in cricket now," he said.

Well, the audience might get a little disappointed knowing that they will not be seeing their popular CSK and RR teams for next two IPLs. Both RR and CSK have been former champions in the IPL games and it will definitely affect the outcomes of the upcoming series without them.

Modi's Letter to ICC about ‘corrupt’ players

Ex-Indian Premier League chairman Lalit Modi reportedly sent a confidential letter to the International Cricket Council (ICC) revealing the names of some top international cricketers who were involved in corruption in the IPL T20 tournament.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Sunday confirmed receiving the letter from Modi. The letter ts dated June 2013 in which Modi has claimed that certain players received illegal payments equal to the amount of Rs 20 crores each from an Indian real estate businessperson. ICC CEO David Richardson has received the names of the so called alleged players and the bookie and has promised that ICC will look after into the matter.

“The players are in close contact with real estate tycoon (name withheld). He is also a big punter and also book maker. I had banned him from bidding for any IPL teams… Reliable sources have informed me that he has paid in cash and kind (flats) to the above three in tune of 20 cr each,” Modi said in the letter.

“The ICC confirms that Mr Modi’s confidential e-mail, which was received in June 2013, and which has recently been published on Twitter, was provided to the ACSU at the time. The ACSU handled that information in accordance with its standard operating procedures, which included sharing it with the BCCI’s anti-corruption unit,” the ICC statement read.

The letter is almost two years old, but has been revealed to public only now. ICC has assured the BCCI that it would carry out investigations since the players involved in the case are all internationals.

The news first came out from Twitter when one of the social-media website users with the handle @shyamswami158 posted an image of the letter in a tweet sent to Modi, asking,"Whadya hav to say about this @LalitKModi ? Wat was @ICC response ..... This is shocking!!!!" Modi's response to the tweet from @shyamswami158 was: "Ask @Icc @Bcci @Ipl why ask me. This is highly confidential. You should not be tweeting this". Later, ICC confirmed about the letter.