S Sreesanth ban: BCCI to approach Kerala High Court against its order

Source – dnaindia.com

Former India speedster S Sreesanth’s wait to return to mainstream cricket might get longer after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) decided to approach the Kerala High Court against its order to revoke lifetime ban on the cricketer.

This has come as a setback to the fast bowler, who is contemplating a return to first class cricket before targetting a comeback into Team India by 2018.

The road back to cricket may not be smooth for this 34-year-old as he has not played top-flight cricket ever since he was arrested by the Delhi police in Mumbai on the night of May 16, 2013 for his alleged involvement in spot-fixing during the Indian Premier League.

Sreesanth, who has played 27 Tests, 53 ODIs and 10 T20Is, including the World Cup final in 2011 and World T20 2007 final, had approached the HC after his earlier acquittal by Delhi sessions court claiming that “his career was getting ruined due to the ban”.

This has come on a day the chairman of Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (COA), Vinod Rai, appeared to have come prepared to clear all the dues of former India captain Mohammad Azharuddin citing the orders of Andhra High Court.

DNA has reliably learnt that the BCCI officials told Rai that the decision to ban Azharuddin for life was ratified in the Annual General Meeting (AGM) and it would be appropriate to discuss the said matter only during the course of next AGM, which may happen in September.

The plea was that this is board’s internal matter and COA has no right to overturn the penalty imposed by BCCI’s Disciplinary Committee.

“If Azhar’s dues are cleared then all other tainted players will come back into the cricket fold as there is no law in India to punish them so far,” said a BCCI official.

“The cases worldwide — from Pakistan to England to South Africa — in this regard were only followed by respective board’s internal procedures and not by any court of law,” added the official.

“The case of Pakistani speedster Mohammed Amir is one such example where Pakistan Cricket Board was the one to decide on his suspension and then rehabilitation. The court of law in England or in Pakistan never passed any instructions in this regard.”

BCCI has maintained that it would not allow any tainted cricketer to comeback into its fold.

Earlier, former cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar questioned BCCI’s preparedness in letting in those cricketers whose bans have been lifted by courts.

Manjrekar tweeted, “If BCCI had a strong case to ban cricketers for match-fixing, surely they must have a strong case to challenge the lifting of bans”.

Even the Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) has said that “it will not act in any haste in bringing Sreesanth back into the state team”.