Offered BJP ticket for Kerala polls: Ex-cricketer Sreesanth

Mangalore Today News Network

Bengaluru/Kochi, March 23, 2016: Former Indian pace bowler S. Sreesanth on Tuesday said he has been offered a BJP ticket to contest the May 16 Kerala assembly elections.

The Bharatiya Janata Party is yet to open its account in the 140-member Kerala assembly.

"I will announce my candidature tomorrow (Wednesday). I have been offered a ticket by the BJP to contest either from Ernakulam or Tripunithura constituency. I wish to contest from Tripunithura," Sreesanth told the media in Bengaluru.

He said he hailed from a family with leftist leanings, while his wife’s family supports the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Sreesanth was banned for life by the Board of Control for Cricket in India after fixing allegations. He last played in the 2013 Indian Premier League. He was arrested on charge of match-fixing and was lodged in Tihar Jail in Delhi.

In July 2015, a Patiala House court in Delhi exonerated him and two other players in the case, against which Delhi Police have gone in appeal.

While his parents are settled in Ernakulam in Kerala, he keeps shuttling between Bengaluru and Kochi.

Sreesanth has played 27 Tests (87 wickets), 53 ODIs (75) and 10 T20Is (seven wickets) and was part of two World Cup winning teams, in the 2007 World Twenty20 and the 2011 World Cup.