BCCI officials meet Sibal demanding anti-fixing law

Rattled by the spot-fixing scandal that has shaken Indian cricket, IPL Chairman Rajiv Shukla and BCCI vice-President Arun Jaitley met Law Minister Kapil Sibal on Friday, demanding a strong anti-fixing legislation be "enacted as soon as possible".

"Today Arun Jaitley, who is a BCCI vice-President and the Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee and me, met Law Minister Mr Kapil Sibal and requested that the strongest possible law should be made to crack down on match-fixing," Shukla said after the meeting.

"We welcome the initiative. The strongest possible punishment should be given. We want a law to be enacted as quickly as possible because in the absence of a law, these people are taking advantage," he said.

"We will soon meet the Sports Minister (Jitendra Singh) because he also wants a strong law. We will request him that a law should be made," he added.

Indian cricket has been thrown into disarray because of the IPL spot-fixing scandal which led to the arrest of three players, including Test pacer S Sreesanth, and several bookies with underworld connections.

The scandal has reached the doorstep of BCCI President N Srinivasan with the Mumbai Police summoning his son-in-law and Chennai Super Kings owner Gurunath Meiyappan for questioning after his name cropped up during the interrogation of betting suspect and Bollywood actor Vindoo Dara Singh.

Asked if Srinivasan should resign owning moral responsibility, Shukla said, "The (BCCI's) Ravi Sawani Committee is already investigating. Let him submit a report. The Disciplinary Committee will take a final view on it."

"Let the Mumbai Police submit its report on the matter," he added.

Photograph: BCCI