Former BCCI,(Board of Control for Cricket in India) President and head of the Rajasthan Cricket Association, P M Rungta, died in Mumbai today after prolonged illness. BCCI CAO Prof Ratnakar Shetty said that Rungta passed away this morning at his Mumbai residence. He was 84-years old. Rungta had been ill for a while and had been recently operated on.

He served as the BCCI President for a three-year term between 1972 to 73 and 1974 to 75. He continued to be involved with the BCCI affairs for several years.

BCCI President N Srinivasan offered condolences on his death. In his message, Srinivasan said that Mr. Rungta was an individual who lived and breathed cricket. He said that Rungta served the BCCI with distinction as its President, and was an invaluable guide in later years.

Sports Ministry has asked the Finance Ministry to order an expeditious probe into charges of black money playing a part in the IPL cricket matches. Sports Minister Ajay Maken told the Lok Sabha today that the Sports Secretary has written a letter last week in this regard to the Revenue Secretary and has sought the inquiry to be conducted in an expeditious manner by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Income Tax Department.

Mr.Maken also said that 19 notices have been issued to IPL and BCCI for FEMA violations to the tune of 1,077 crore rupees and Sports Ministry Joint Secretary has also written a letter to the ED on 17th of this month seeking expeditious probe into the matter.

The Sports Minister was responding to an issue raised by

former cricketer Kirti Azad of BJP, who made a strong pitch

for a special audit by independent people into the conduct of

the BCCI and other concerned sports organisations which were registered.

Maken also made a strong pitch for bringing the BCCI under Right to Information, saying the Central Information
Commission was hearing the issue. The Sports Minister said BCCI qualifies for being brought under RTI in view of the fact that its single-most important function was to select the Indian team.He said the BCCI and other cricket associations have got a large amount of land almost free from state governments and other institutions.

Seeking to dismiss charges by Azad that the government

treats the BCCI with kid-gloves due to backing of influential
people, Mr.Maken said the government has acted expeditiously against the BCCI in the past and has ensured that it no longer enjoyed tax exemptions as a charitable body.

He said IT Department had ensured the BCCI to pay income tax dues of 365.24 crore rupees from 1996-97 to 2006-07.
The income tax realised in 2007-08 was 118 crore rupees , while the tax liability of 2008-09 was 257.12 crore rupees , of which 131 crore rupees have been realised. For rest of the amount, the BCCI has gone to the tax tribunal.

The Bombay High Court on Monday issued a notice to Board of Control for Cricket in India, BCCI seeking reply to a PIL alleging the board's failure to pay over 5 crore rupees to police for security provided for Indian Premier League matches played at Navi Mumbai in the 2010 season.

A division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice N M Jamdar was hearing the PIL, which claimed that the BCCI, owed more than 5 crore rupees to Navi Mumbai police.

According to the petition, during the 2010 edition of IPL, six matches were played at the D Y Patil stadium between 12th of March and 25th of April and in all, 3,345 police personnel were deployed at the stadium.

The petition has sought direction to the police to recover the arrears, and argued that till then no security should be provided for the IPL matches to be played in Mumbai in this season.

The bench after issuing notice to BCCI has posted the matter for hearing on Wednesday.