Body blow to Srini

Rajeev Shukla steps down as IPL Chairman; BCCI emergency meeting today at 2.30 pm Srini's 3 conditions to quit

• Wants to be reinstated if he comes out clean
• He should represent BCCI
• Jagdale, Shirke should not be taken back

Chennai: On a day of swift developments that saw top-level maneuvers, including the resignation of Rajeev Shukla as the Chairman of the troubled Indian Premier League (IPL), beleaguered President of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) N Srinivasan has convened an emergency meeting at 2.30 pm on Sunday. The Board members are likely to push for his ouster in the wake of the spot-fixing scandal that has rocked Indian cricket. While it is all but certain that Srinivasan will have to step down paying heed to the popular demand from the affiliated units, he has bravely put in three conditions ahead of the meeting.

The conditions come as last-ditch face-saving efforts by the owner of Chennai Super Kings. He wants to be reinstated as President if he comes out clean after the probe; he should represent India in ICC meetings and 'ditchers' Sanjay Jagdale and Ajay Shirke should not be in the new panel. However, Shukla's resignation late Saturday evening comes as a body-blow to Srinivasan's calculations. "I have decided to quit as IPL chairman. It is a decision which I was pondering over for some time," Shukla said while adding that he took the decision after the resignations of Shirke and Jagdale. Meanwhile, even as the name of Shashank Manohar is doing the rounds as a possible interim President should Srinivasan resign the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) has proposed that former chief Jagmohan Dalmiya should hold the post. Another former Board chief, A C Muthaiah has called for the dissolution of the three-member probe team because, 'it makes no sense as Jagdale has resigned from the BCCI.'