TNPL: Co-owners of Tuti Patriots expelled; no franchise suspended, says report

Chennai, Dec 5:  The Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) has expelled two co-owners of a franchise acting on the recommendations made by its internal inquiry committee probing the allegations of corrupt practices in the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL).

According to a report in the Indian Express, TNCA -- while acting on the advice of the internal probe panel that comprised a retired Chennai police commissioner, a senior lawyer and a former India spinner -- has directed Tuti Patriots to change their ownership by getting rid of their two co-owners.

Selvakumar, who is the principal owner of the Tuti Patriots, will now have the full control of the franchise after the ousters of two co-owners, said the report.

The report further states that no franchise has been suspended by the state association as claimed by BCCI President Sourav Ganguly. "No TNPL franchise has been suspended or banned," the report quoted TNCA Secretary R.S. Ramasaamy as saying.

On December 1, after the BCCI's Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Mumbai, Ganguly had addressed the alleged corruption issues in the T20 leagues organised by some state associations.

"At the present the two leagues in which (alleged) betting and fixing happened, one is on hold; KPL (Karnataka Premier League), and Chennai (TNPL) has suspended two franchises," he had said.

Earlier, the TNCA probe committee had given a clean chit to the league. "The report of the committee which went into the information made available to the TNPL has been studied by us. We have decided to accept the report, which has opined that no actionable incidents had been noticed," Ramaswamy had said.

With the BCCI's Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) starting an investigation over allegations of corrupt practices in the TNPL, the governing council of the league had come out with a statement and made it clear that the TNCA has a zero-tolerance policy towards persons indulging in unethical practices and action would have been taken against any person found guilty.

The TNPL features Indian stars likes R. Ashwin, Vijay Shankar, Dinesh Karthik, Washington Sundar and Murali Vijay among others and is an annual affair which even sees the likes of Matthew Hayden and Brett Lee commentate for official broadcasters Star India.