BCCI secretary and Chennai Super Kings franchise owner N. Srinivasan on Thursday rubbished reports that he tried to “fix” the IPL 2009 player auction and insisted that he won the bid "fair and square".
A TV channel on Wednesday claimed that Mr Srinivasan in connivance with suspended IPL chairman Lalit Modi tried to fix the bid of former England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff in Chennai Super Kings favour.
However, Mr Srinivasan said he didn't do anything wrong and his franchise outbid Rajasthan Royals as only they had the full purse of $2 million.
"I didn't need anybody's favour. Rajasthan Royals bid for $1.5 million for Flintoff, I beat them at $1.55 million. So where is the deal? How can I have any deal? How can Modi have control of Shane Warne unless he is the owner of the Rajasthan Royals," he told Times Now.
"Hundred per cent I'm telling you, we did nothing wrong. We won fair and square. We were the only one who could have bought only player because I had the full purse. I didn't need anybody's favour," he added.
"The Chennai Super Kings is the only team which had the 2 million in the purse. Everybody else had less, so we didn't need anybody's favour to buy Flintoff," he added.
A TV report on Wednesday quoted an e-mail purportedly written by Modi to Srinivasan, which read "what a nightmare to convince them not to terminate (Sohail) Tanvir and also not to take Flintoff. Warne went off the handle. But have managed it by using stick and carrot strategy. Thus they have $1.875 million. Much love Lalit".
This is not the first time that Mr Srinivasan has found himself in a controversy. A few days back, the BCCI secretary was accused of “fixing” umpires for Chennai Super Kings matches during the IPL.