New Delhi: The Indian cricket board on Friday came down heavily on the tainted cricketers, slapping life bans on fast bowler S. Sreesanth and his Rajasthan Royals teammate Ankeet Chavan for spot-fixing in the Indian Premier League-6 (IPL-6). A decision on Royals spinner Ajit Chandila will be taken in a few days.
Amit Singh, a former Rajasthan Royals player, was handed a five-year ban while another RR cricketer Siddharth Trivedi got away with a lighter one-year suspension after the The Board of Cricket for Control in India (BCCI) disciplinary committee met to discuss anti-corruption chief Ravi Sawani's report on scam.
Harmeet Singh, 20, who was part of India's Under-19 World Cup winning team in 2012, was let-off with a warning since the BCCI had no evidence against him. Harmeet had a similar charge against him as Trivedi but was cleared of any wrongdoing. The disciplinary committee met here under the chairmanship of its president, N. Srinivasan and deliberated on the findings of anti-corruption unit chief Ravi Sawani for more than three hours. The other two members of the committee are BCCI vice presidents Arun Jaitley and Niranjan Shah.
All the cricketers except Chandila, who was released from jail earlier this week, were presented at the hearing. The committee's decision is binding. "After considering the evidence on record and hearing each of the players in person, the disciplinary committee has passed the following order. Amit Singh is banned for a period of five years from playing any representative cricket, or in any way being associated with the activities of the BCCI or its affiliates," BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel said in a statement.
"Trivedi is banned for a period of one year from playing any representative cricket or in any way being associated with the activities of the BCCI or its affiliates. "Chavan is banned for life from playing any representative cricket, or in any way being associated with the activities of the BCCI or its affiliates. "Sreesanth is banned for life from playing any representative cricket, or in any way being associated with the activities of the BCCI or its affiliates," the statement said adding "The case against Harmeet Singh has been closed in the absence of evidence against him." Since Chandila was released from jail this week, Sawani couldn't interrogate him and his case will be taken up later.
