BCCI appoints Ajit Singh as ACU head

The former Rajasthan DGP will take charge ahead of the IPL beginning April 7; Neeraj Kumar, the former Police Commissioner of Delhi, has been retained as advisor.

Singh will be based out of the BCCI headquarters at Cricket Centre, Mumbai.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) appointed former Rajasthan Director General of Police (DGP) Ajit Singh as the head of the Anti-Corruption Unit on Saturday.

Having served the Indian Police Service for close to four decades — a 1982-Rajasthan cadre IPS officer retired as DGP in 2017 — Singh is an expert at handling anti-corruption operations, investigative work and field policing. He had headed the anti-corruption bureau for Rajasthan in the past.

Singh will take charge ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) beginning April 7. He will be based out of the BCCI headquarters at Cricket Centre, Mumbai.

Neeraj Kumar, the former Police Commissioner of Delhi, has been retained as advisor to the unit till May 31.

There is a bit of a blur as to why the man, who kept Indian cricket corruption-free ever since the spot-fixing scandal in the sixth edition of the IPL, is being removed suddenly. It could be a direct consequence of the letter Neeraj wrote to the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators and BCCI CEO Rahul Johri emphasising their disinterest in fighting corruption.

When the match-fixing incident involving Hansie Cronje, the deceased South African captain, occured in 2000, Kumar was the DGP with the Central Bureau of Investigation. The agency had procured a conversation between a bookie and Cronje.

Along with the International Cricket Council, the BCCI will work towards maintaining the highest level of compliance during the IPL.