The head of Indian cricket and the next chairman of the International Cricket Council is facing 12 allegations in a fixing investigation which may have wide-reaching implications for the world game.

India’s Supreme Court rejected a request from NSrinivasan to be reinstated as head of the Board of Control for Cricket in India and revealed that he is one of 13 names included in a sealed report into fixing in the Indian Premier League.

Srinivasan was ordered to stand down as president of the BCCI on March 28 and was replaced by Sunil Gavaskar when three Supreme Court judges ruled a proper investigation into fixing allegations could not take place while he was still in power.

Srinivasan owns the Chennai Super Kings IPL franchise which is at the heart of the investigation after his son-in-law, who was a senior official within the team, was indicted for illegal betting and links to bookmakers.

Despite being forced to stand down from the BCCI, Srinivasan remains a director of the ICC and was the Indian representative at a board meeting in Dubai last week. He denies any wrongdoing but the ICC’s credibility as a governing body with a zero-tolerance approach to corruption is badly compromised when its most powerful member is able to continue unchallenged while at the centre of a fixing allegation.

The ICC is now facing the unpalatable prospect of Srinivasan becoming its chairman at the board’s annual general meeting in Melbourne in June while still being barred from his home board by India’s highest court.

Srinivasan’s chairmanship was part of the power-share agreement negotiated by the BCCI, the England and Wales Cricket Board and Cricket Australia this year when Srinivasan was confident the fixing case had been dealt with. If Srinivasan is toppled it would be embarrassing for Giles Clarke, the ECB chairman who worked closely with him in devising the proposals for the ICC’s restructure before persuading other boards to sign up.

In private the ECB has distanced itself from Srinivasan in recent weeks stating it was working with the BCCI rather than one individual, which is partly true with a new administrator taking his place if he has to stand down permanently. But any regime change in India may threaten the agreed ICC deal to distribute the estimated $2.5 billion (£1.5 billion) from its next television rights contract.

The stakes for English cricket are high. By increasing its own revenue share from the ICC pool English cricket expects a generous windfall with estimates putting the value for the counties at around £12 million each over the course of eight years. It is money that would help clear crippling debts, upgrade stadiums and bankroll centres of excellence.

At the moment the ECB can only watch matters unfold in India where the three Supreme Court judges are losing patience with the BCCI’s attempts to insist the IPL fixing case has been dealt with satisfactorily.

This was dismissed by the court with Justice AK Patnaik saying: “It seems that Mr Srinivasan has not taken the allegations seriously. Reputations of cricketers and great names are at stake. What happens to the reputation of the players who are representing the country and Indian cricketers of the future. Cricket has to be clean but institutional autonomy has to be maintained.”

The Supreme Court commissioned an investigation into corruption last year when former India Test bowler S Sreesanth was caught spot fixing while playing for the Rajasthan Royals.

Srinivasan’s son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan was implicated when Mumbai police arrested him on charges of betting, conspiracy and cheating. A BCCI-formed panel found “no evidence of any wrongdoing” but this was challenged on the grounds of conflict of interest by one of Srinivasan’s opponents leading to the Supreme Court stepping in.

Meiyappan remains on police bail and has not commented on the allegations.

MS Dhoni, the captain of India and the Chennai Super Kings, has become embroiled in the scandal for repeating Srinivasan’s insistence that Meiyappan was just “an enthusiast” and did not have an official role with the team. He was often seen alongside Dhoni and the coach Stephen Fleming and Srinivasan has now said for the first time Meiyappan was the “public face” of the Super Kings, a small step towards admitting he was an official part of the team . On his Twitter profile Meiyappan described himself as the “Team Principal Chennai Super Kings”, which he hastily deleted when the fixing allegations first surfaced. He has also admitted in media interviews to exchanging team line-ups before play with Dhoni.

In one piece of good news for Srinivasan, the Supreme Court did not impose an independent probe but ordered the BCCI to reappear on April 22 with a credible investigative process. —Courtesy The Telegraph