When the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) meets here on Friday, it is likely to discuss Kings XI Punjab co-owner Ness Wadia’s suspended jail sentence of two years for illegal possession of drugs in Japan.
One of the co-owners of the Indian Premier League franchise, Wadia was arrested earlier this year at an airport in Japanese town Hokkaido for possession of 25gm of cannabis resin. His sentence has been suspended for five years.
As per IPL’s Operational Rules, no person associated with the team can bring the game into disrepute and one of the clauses state that it can lead to suspension of teams.
Wadia was arrested earlier this year at an airport in Japanese town Hokkaido for possession of 25gm of cannabis resin. His sentence has been suspended for five years.
Though there is not much clarity on the issue, some of the BCCI officials have told Sportstar that the matter could be handed over to the Ombudsman Justice (retd.) DK Jain.
“It is up to the CoA to decide the future course of action. Now that there is a retired Supreme Court judge as the ethics officer, the CoA may refer the matter to him. There are gray areas (in the matter),” one of the BCCI officials said.
Even if it brings disrepute to the franchise, there is no clarity on whether Wadia’s sentencing can actually lead to a team’s suspension. “The matter is not exactly related to the IPL, so there is a bit of ambiguity. The BCCI legal team and the Ombudsman has to work on that,” he said.
The BCCI official, however, insisted that the Board is mulling on whether Wadia’s accreditation for the IPL will be scrapped.
When contacted for a version from the franchise, none of the officials were available for a comment.
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