Anurag lashes out at Srini
28 April 2015 12:13 AM GMT
The internal feud within the BCCI took an ugly turn on Monday with board secretary Anurag Thakur launching a stinging attack on ICC chairman N Srinivasan, saying that he should actually share information on bookies with his own family members “whose involvement in betting has been proved”.
A day after ICC issued an advisory to Thakur to stay away from suspected bookies, the BCCI secretary hit back at Srinivasan through an open letter in which he questioned the timing of the “counter offensive” initiated at the behest of the ICC chairman.
Reports had said BCCI was sent a letter by the ICC about Thakur being seen with an alleged bookie Karan Gilhotra in Chandigarh and the BJP MP’s office on Monday issued a media release. “BCCI has received intimation from the ICC ostensibly under your direction that I should keep away from one Karan Gilhotra who is a ‘suspected bookie’. The intimation further states that the information is further unverified” Thakur said in a scathing letter to Srinivasan.
“I have earlier been Joint Secretary of the BCCI under your presidentship and I am now secretary BCCI. I only wish that you had shared the list of ‘unverified suspected bookies’ with me and other colleagues so that we could identify such persons and keep away from them. I have known this person, who has been active in political and cricketing activities in Punjab and adjacent states. I had no knowledge or any clue about his ‘activities as a suspected bookie’, he said.
Thakur said, “It is curious that intimation about having known this ‘suspected bookie’ was brought to the ICC notice by your friend Mr. Neeraj Gunde. Neeraj Gunde incidentally is circulating to the media in Delhi the details of documents against your critics in the BCCI. He operates on your behalf,” Thakur wrote.
He alleged that a procured complaint and an ICC advisory based on unverified information was issued on Srinivasan’s behest on the eve of the BCCI Working Committee meeting. It was intended to be a counter offensive since Srinivasan had not reconciled with my election as Secretary BCCI.
“I would request atleast now share with me or other colleagues in BCCI the list of suspected bookies in India so that we may keep away from them. You may also share this information with your family members whose involvement in betting has been proved. Since the ICC advisory to me had been made in public I would be making this letter to you public,” he wrote.
If required, I will write to Anurag personally, says Srinivasan
ICC chairman N Srinivasan on Monday made it clear he does not want to engage in a war of words with BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur, who has shot off a strongly-worded letter to him in response to the global body’s claims about being seen with a suspected bookie. “I have seen that letter written by Anurag (Thakur) which has been circulated to the media. He has written something in it but I feel it’s not proper to respond to him through media,” Srinivasan said on Monday. Asked if he has been taken aback by the attack from Thakur, Srinivasan replied, “If I feel anything about what all Anurag has written, I will personally write a letter to him.”
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