Police say ICC had warned Meiyappan about bookies

Srinivasan denied that the ICC had kept the BCCI in the loop

The Mumbai Police Friday claimed that an official of the International Cricket Council had warned IPL team Chennai Super Kings head Gurunath Meiyappan,the son-in-law of Indian cricket board president N Srinivasan,about his suspected involvement with bookies weeks before his arrest.

A Mumbai Police Crime Branch source said that an ICC anti-corruption official had asked Meiyappan to be careful about his association with bookies after his name came up during their investigations.

Meiyappan is believed to have told the Mumbai Police that he was warned by an ICC official and he had in turn tried to warn Vindoo Dara Singh,a suspected bookie who has also been arrested in the betting scandal.

Be careful,I have been warned, Meiyappan is supposed to have told the small-time actor who is the son of wrestler-actor Dara Singh. Although the police do not have a recording of this phone conversation,sources claimed that Vindoo corroborated it during his interrogation.

Meiyappan has also named the ICC anti-corruption official but the police have not confirmed his identity with the international body,the source said.

Investigations have revealed that Meiyappan had told Vindoo that he had been warned by the ICC. In April this year,an official with the ACSU had verbally warned him to be careful. Since the ACSU usually keeps people connected to cricket teams under surveillance and investigates aspects like who they are associating with,Meiyappan assumed that the official was referring to his association with bookies and did not ask any further. Both Meiyappan and Vindoo have confirmed this during interrogation, said a senior Crime Branch officer.

The ACSU is the Anti-Corruption and Security Unit of the ICC. Reached for comment,the ICC spokesperson declined to confirm whether the organisation had indeed warned Meiyappan.

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Srinivasan denied that the ICC had kept the BCCI in the loop. BCCI did not receive any warning from ICC on Gurunath, Srinivasan said. The boards general manager for game development,Ratnakar Shetty,also claimed ignorance.

A meeting of the working committee was held on May 19 after three players were arrested. Y P Singh,head of the ICC anti-corruption unit,Ravi Sawani,head of the BCCIs anti-corruption unit,were also present there. I dont remember them informing us during the meeting of any report on such matters8230;as far as my knowledge goes. I cant comment on what ICC had told Gurunath, Shetty said.

But Mumbai Police sources said the ICC official was in direct communication with Meiyappan and did not inform the BCCI.