BCCI panel slaps life ban on Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan

NEW DELHI: A disciplinary committee of India’s cricket control board on Friday imposed a life ban on Test pace bowler S Sreesanth and spinner Ankeet Chavan for their involvement in the spot-fixing scandal that rocked the Indian Premier League’s sixth edition earlier this year.

It also suspended former Rajasthan Royals’ player Amit Singh for five years and his teammate Siddharth Trivedi for one year.

Proceedings against another player, Harmeet Singh, were dropped for lack of evidence, said a statement from the Board of Control for Cricket ( BCCI).

The statement, however, did not mention Ajit Chandila, a spinner for Rajasthan Royals and the alleged kingpin of the racket. But a BCCI official said a decision on Chandila will be taken later as he has just been released on bail.

The committee comprised BCCI president-in-exile N Srinivasan and vice-presidents Arun Jaitley and Niranjan Shah. The committee’s decision came on a report filed by the board’s anti-corruption unit chief Ravi Sawani.

The report had held Sreesanth, Chandila and Chavan guilty of giving a “pre-determined number of runs per over in exchange for bribes.” Although Trivedi and Singh were cleared of spotfixing charges, the report held them guilty of not reporting the approaches of bookmakers.