Dhoni offers to quit as Chennai Super Kings skipper, India Cements vice-president

 

 

Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has offered to quit as skipper of Chennai Super Kings following the controversy over conflict of interest. Dhoni, who has been leading the Chennai team since it came into existence, also offered to give up the vice-presidentship of India Cements Limited, a company headed by N. Srinivasan.     

The news comes a day after the Supreme Court on Friday appointed Sunil Gavaskar the interim president of the Indian cricket board in place of the tainted incumbent N. Srinivasan. Srinivasan gets sacked, Gavaskar to take charge as BCCI chief

An apex court bench headed by Justice A.K. Patnaik said Gavaskar would only be concerned with matters related to the seventh edition of the Indian Premier League.

The rest of the functions of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) would be discharged by its senior-most vice-president Shivlal Yadav.

It is believed that Dhoni was upset over his name being dragged in the IPL spot-fixing. Gavaskar's appointment builds optimism in cricket fraternity

Harish Salve, the counsel for Bihar cricket association chief Aditya Verma, on Thursday had accused Dhoni of giving false statements to the Mudgal committee about the role of Gurunath Meiyappan, son-in-law of N. Srinivasan, in Chennai Super Kings.

Salve, who appeared in Supreme Court for the petitioner Aditya Verma, secretary of Cricket Association of Bihar, said it was indeed a lie aimed at cover-up.

"He (Dhoni) said this on record. In one voice with Srinivasan he said that Meiyappan was only an enthusiast. I have no personal knowledge of it, it is the report that said. According to the report, Meiyappan used to sit in the players dug out and was also there in the players auction for the team (CSK). And Dhoni knew it. What was the need for the captain to say that. The definition of corruption includes cover-up," Salve said.

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/dhoni-resign-as-chennai-super-kings-skipper-india-cements-vice-president/1/351816.html

US Vice-President rushes to Europe, reassures allies on Russia’s borders

People at a rally in support of Crimea joining Russia, celebrate holding Russian flags at Red Square in Moscow Tuesday.

The United States is considering sending troops for war games in the Baltic states bordering Russia, Vice-President Joe Biden said Tuesday in an effort to reassure NATO allies alarmed at the Kremlin’s intervention in Ukraine.
Moscow’s despatch of troops to Ukraine’s Crimea region and its unilateral declaration that the area is now part of Russia have left NATO member states in eastern Europe worried that they could be next in line.
In the Polish capital on the first leg of a two-day trip to the region, Biden condemned Russia’s actions in Crimea as a land grab, and he said NATO’s commitment to protect any of its members from attack was unwavering.
He also said the United States would work on reducing the dependence of eastern European states on imported Russian fuel, a relationship that, US officials say, the Kremlin uses as a tool of political influence.
Biden’s suggestion of sending US troops for military exercises in the Baltics, if it is implemented, would represent the strongest concrete evidence to date of Washington’s resolve in backing up its NATO allies on Russia’s doorstep.
“We are exploring a number of additional steps to increase the pace and scope of our military cooperation including rotating US forces to the Baltic region to conduct ground and naval exercises and training missions,” Biden told reporters after talks with Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, who was visiting Warsaw.
Earlier, at a briefing alongside Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Biden described Russia’s actions as an assault on Ukraine’s sovereignty and a violation of international law.
“Russia has offered a variety of arguments to justify what is nothing more than a land grab,” Biden said. “But the world has seen through Russia’s actions and rejected the logic, the flawed logic, behind those actions.”
Russia said it sent troops to Crimea to protect Russian residents, who it said were in danger in the unrest that followed toppling of Ukraine’s pro-Russian president. A referendum in Crimea Sunday backed union with Russia, though the West called that vote a Moscow-orchestrated sham.
Biden said the events in Crimea were a reminder to NATO members that they need to stand together.
The three Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, are in NATO and the EU. Yet they are particularly vulnerable to any Russian action. They are small, they depend on Russia for energy and trade, and they have sizeable Russian-speaking minorities.
Gorbachev: Crimean vote ‘happy event’
MOSCOW: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev has hailed Crimea’s vote to join Russia as a “happy event”. Gorbachev said in remarks carried Tuesday by online newspaper Slon.ru that the vote offered the Crimean residents the freedom of choice and justly reflected their will. He said Sunday’s referendum showed that “people really wanted to return to Russia”