NEW DELHI: A third top Indian cricket official quit on Saturday, piling more pressure on the beleaguered president of the world's richest cricketing body to resign over a mounting betting scandal.
Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman Rajeev Shukla told the Press Trust of India he was resigning "in the best interest of Indian cricket" in the wake of the spot-fixing scandal that has ensnared the glitzy league.
"I have decided to quit as IPL chairman. It is a decision which I was pondering over for some time. I think it is time to step down," Shukla was quoted as saying.
His announcement came on the eve of a crucial meeting of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in the southern city of Chennai expected to decide the fate of the cricket body's president N. Srinivasan.
Srinivasan has been pressured to quit since his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan was arrested a week ago for allegedly taking part in the illegal betting row embroiling the IPL that has dismayed fans in the cricket-mad subcontinent.
Shukla's decision to quit the powerful post as head of the multi-billion-dollar IPL followed the resignations of BCCI joint secretary Sanjay Jagdale and treasurer Ajay Shirke on Friday over the spot-fixing row.
"Sanjay Jagdale and Ajay Shirke resigned in the best interest of Indian cricket. I thought this is the right time," said Shukla, who took over the IPL reins in 2011.
He said the IPL, featuring the world's top cricketers in eight franchises owned by India's leading businessmen and Bollywood stars, had been going well till the spot-fixing scandal erupted.
"The stadiums were jampacked," said Shukla, who is also a junior minister in Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Congress government which has been battling a separate set of graft scandals.
The resignations threw India's national sport into new uncertainty while the Calcutta daily, The Telegraph, declared in a Saturday headline: "Srini on crumbling pitch". The Times of India said: "Game all but over for Srinivasan."
Former BCCI treasurer Shirke said he quit because the "board's credibility comes before anything else" and that he could not "work with anyone who can't see the writing on the wall".
On Friday evening, the isolated BCCI chief, who also runs a business empire and Chennai Super Kings, the most successful team in the IPL, ruled out resigning.
Srinivasan, 68, elected as the BCCI president in 2011, has insisted he will not be "bulldozed" into quitting when he had done no wrong.
His son-in-law, Meiyappan, an executive of the Super Kings team owned by Srinivasan's construction supplies giant India Cements, is being probed by a three-member BCCI commission.
Media reports say all the five BCCI vice presidents are ready to quit if Srinivasan refuses to step aside himself over the alleged spot-fixing -- an illegal activity in which a part of a game, but not the outcome, is determined.
Cricket officials were struggling to find a face-saving exit for Srinivasan. His formal removal would require a vote against him by two-thirds of the board.
The arrest of Srinivasan's son-in-law came after Test paceman Shanthakumaran Sreesanth and two teammates in the IPL's Rajasthan Royals -- Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila -- were also taken into custody. All accused deny any wrongdoing.
Police allege the players deliberately bowled badly in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars after striking deals with bookmakers.
While the IPL, launched in 2008, made big money, the tournament has been dogged by allegations of corporate corruption, money laundering and links to the criminal underworld.
Its brash chief, Lalit Modi, was ousted in 2010 over graft allegations and fled to London where he now lives and from where he has denied all accusations.
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