IPL team owners may lose the dug-out view

NEW DELHI: With two IPL team owners - Gurunath Meiypappan of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals' Raj Kundra - getting embroiled in the betting row, the cricket board (BCCI) is now thinking of reigning in the franchise owners and curb their movement during matches.

Ahead of the crucial emergent Working Committee meeting on Monday, there are suggestions to shift the owners from the dug-out to the galleries even though it may not go down well with some of the team owners. The board feels that the measure will get the support of the team owners as the credibility of the game and the league is in question.

"The owners generally enter the field of play to sit in the dug-outs. If their seats are shifted somewhere else, then they won't enter the field while a match is on. After all, what can the players learn from the owners during matches? They don't have anything to contribute. There should be less crowd in the playing areas," a BCCI official told TOI.

When TOI contacted BCCI's interim president Jagmohan Dalmiya, he said, "We haven't discussed any such restriction so far in regard to IPL. Once the members meet we will know and decide on the issue."

When asked if the BCCI was mulling to discontinue IPL for a year to clean it up in the light of recent unsavoury developments, Dalmiya said: "The situation is not as bad for the league to be stopped. The Working Committee has given us a chance to clean up cricket and we will do our best."

It was also learnt that the board will issue a strict Code of Conduct for all IPL players. The BCCI may also decide to reduce the total strength of an IPL team squad from 33 to 23. Then, there are suggestions to allow only 15 players per side in the dug-out during matches and reduce the number of support staff in the playing area.