The big news: ‘No question of perjury,’ Thakur tells court

Board of Control for Cricket in India President Anurag Thakur on Wednesday finally spoke against the perjury charges being mooted by the Supreme Court, denying any wrongdoing. “No question of perjury, I did not lie to the court,” Thakur said. Last week, the Supreme Court had accused Thakur of lying and threatened to press perjury charges against him.

The BCCI is currently awaiting a final verdict from the court regarding the implementation of the Justice RM Lodha Panel recommendations. The perjury allegations came to light when the International Cricket Council’s CEO Dave Richardson said in September that Thakur had verbally requested its chairman Shashank Manohar to write a letter alleging government interference.

Chief Justice of India TS Thakur said, “Why are you trying to mislead the court? If you want to escape perjury charges, you ought to apologise. At every stage you have been trying to obstruct. Everyone wants to go around and continue to hold the post even after 70 years.” The BCCI president has denied all such claims.

Other top stories

  1. The Indian cricket team will have to wait for the Supreme Court’s verdict on January 3 before it can hope to receive any performance-based incentives from the Board of Control for Cricket in India following their 4-0 win over England in the five-match Test series. The BCCI has a practice of announcing performance-based rewards to the senior as well as junior teams. However, in the current scenario, BCCI and the players are at a loss right now. 
  2. Ravichandran Ashwin and Murali Vijay will not be a part of the Tamil Nadu Ranji squad that will face Karnataka in the quarter-finals from December 23 in Visakhapatnam. Ashwin is reported to be suffering from sports hernia, while Vijay is yet to recover from a shoulder injury that he suffered during the final Test against England. 
  3. The Pakistan Cricket Board is keen to revive the Asian block in world cricket. However, it believes strained cricket relations with India are a hurdle. PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan returned home from Colombo after chairing the Asian Cricket Council meeting without any one-to-one meeting with the Indian cricket board officials or discussions on revival of Indo-Pak cricket. “The Asian bloc can be revived in world cricket and made influential again, but first Pakistan and India need to work on the same wavelength,” Khan said.
  4. West Indies cricketer Andre Russell was caught in controversy in the ongoing Big Bash League in Australia after he came out to bat for Sydney Thunder in their opener on Tuesday carrying a black and pink bat. Initially, Cricket Australia said that his unique bat was within the BBL’s playing regulations. However a day later, the Australian cricketing body banned Russell from using the bat after match officials told them that it left black marks on the white Kookaburra ball.
  5. BCCI President Anurag Thakur on Wednesday claimed that the Board’s reservations regarding a few recommendations of the Justice Lodha Committee could not be conveyed as the panel has not given them time for a meeting in the past two months. Thakur said, “The matter is subjudice and I have full faith in the Indian judicial system. We have called meetings time and again to implement Justice Lodha committee recommendations. More than 85% [of the] recommendations have been implemented. The members do not agree on the implementation of three-four recommendations as they are not practical. To convey this, we sought time but the committee is not giving us time for the last two months,” he added. 
  6. After a gap of 42 years, two Indians were first and second in the international Test bowling rankings. In the latest list that was released by the International Cricket Council on Wednesday, Ravichandran Ashwin held his top spot with Ravindra Jadeja now sits in the second place, just eight points behind the Tamil Nadu off-spinner.
  7. Former South African opener Alviro Petersen has been banned for two years by the country’s cricket board after admitting to 13 breaches of the anti-corruption code in a match-fixing scandal. Petersen apologised for his actions. 
  8. South African skipper Faf du Plessis’s appeal against his conviction of ball-tampering has been rejected by judicial commissioner Michael Beloff. Du Plessis remained guilty in an incident which took place during the second Test against Australia at Hobart.