BCCI probe finds 4 Rajasthan Royals players guilty of spot-fixing in IPL

mangaloretoday.com

Mumbai, Sept 13: The one-man Board of Control for Cricket in India panel has found four Rajasthan Royals players guilty of spot-fixing during the Indian Premier League 2013. According to reports, probe panel chief Ravi Sawani has found S Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila, Ankeet Chavan and Amit Singh guilty of spot-fixing . Sawani, who is also head of the BCCI’s Anti-Corruption Unit, has recommended bans ranging from five years to life for the guilty players.

 

The fate of the cricketers implicated in the IPL spot-fixing scandal will be up for discussion when the BCCI’s disciplinary committee meets in New Delhi today to deliberate on Sawani’s report. Chandila and Singh are likely to get life bans while Sreesantha and Chavan may be banned for 10-15 years. The probe has also pulled up Harmeet Singh and Siddharth Trivedi for failing to report that they had been approached by bookies.

Five Rajasthan Royals players Sreesanth, Chandila, Chavan, Harmeet and Trivedi have been asked to attend the disciplinary committee meeting. However, it is not sure if Chandila will attend the meet as he was granted bail just a few days ago. As per BCCI rules, a player needs to be give one week’s notice to attend a disciplinary committee meeting. The players will be cross-examined by the committee, which comprises Board vice-presidents Arun Jaitley and Niranjan Shah.

After being arrested by the Delhi Police, Test pacer Sreesanth, Chandila and Chavan have served hail terms. All three of them played for the Rajasthan Royals but their contracts were terminated by the franchise after the scandal broke out.

Sawani, who heads the BCCI’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit, handed over the report to the Board during its Working Committee meeting in Kolkata last month.

After examining the report, the disciplinary committee will present the findings at the BCCI annual general meeting to be held in Chennai on September 29.

Sawani had earlier submitted an interim report, which was put on hold by the BCCI as he had not spoken to Chandila, who was in judicial custody till a few days ago.

Chandila, who was granted bail on August 6 for two days to perform the last rites of his deceased brother, has denied the charges but is yet to meet Sawani.

The disciplinary committee originally had BCCI president N Srinivasan as well but he stepped aside after the arrest of his son-in-law and Chennai Super Kings team principal Gurunath Meiyappan on charges of betting.

Sreesanth, Chavan and Chandila were arrested on May 16, along with 11 bookies, and were charged under the Indian Penal Code section 420 and 120B, which deal with fraud, cheating and criminal conspiracy.

The scandal led to an overhauling of the guidelines for players and owners in the IPL. The BCCI drew up an action plan called ’Operation Clean-up’ which envisaged a series of measures to curb corruption in the IPL.

Cheerleaders were barred along with the after-match parties for players and support staff.