MUMBAI: Today the supreme court rejected a public interest litigation (PIL) to stay the IPL playoff matches until the completion of investigations of the alleged spot-fixing in the tournament. It has, however, given the BCCI a 15-day deadline to conclude its investigation, which is being carried out by cricket?s richest body?s anti-corruption unit head Ravi Sawani.

The supreme court also slammed the BCCI, saying that the spot fixing incidents had taken place due to its lackadaisical approach in reining in the erring players.

An apex court bench of justices B.S. Chauhan and Dipak Misra said that it was incumbent upon the BCCI to maintain and sustain the reputation of the 125-year-old game. The court said, "Definitely there is some kind of irregularity. But the biggest problem is the lackadaisical attitude of the BCCI. It should stop. There has to be some scientific dispassionate and impartial approach to solve these problems."

In its ruling, the court observed that cricket was a gentleman?s game and it should remain as gentleman?s, not tainted, at the same time though it also said that it was not a case for the court to ?interfere and ban matches?.

Social activist Sudarsh Awasti had filed the PIL. He had also sought that the court orders a special investigation team (SIT) probe into the scam.