BCCI may take action against Sreesanth and other by June 12

Action will be based on media reports as Board's anti-graft unit will neither get access to players nor evidence collected by Delhi cops

While the President of Board Of Control For Cricket In India (BCCI), N Srinivasan, is trying to protect his position in the spot fixing scandal, it is likely that fate of cricketer S Sreesanth and two other players of Rajasthan Royal will be decided by the disciplinary committee by the second week of June.

Senior members of the BCCI have asked Ravi Sawani, who is heading the anti-corruption unit, to finish his investigations and finalise a detail report at the earliest so that the committee members could start taking action against these players who were allegedly involved in spot fixing in three matches.

Interestingly, the action on Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan will mainly be based on media reports because for the first time the anti-corruption unit will neither get access to players nor details of the evidence collected by the Delhi Police.

“We are not going to share evidence with BCCI and will also not give the anti-corruption unit access to these players. BCCI officials will have to depend on the information already available in the media,” said a senior police of Special Cell officer who is involved in the investigations.

Delhi Police had started investigations against Sreesanth, Chandila and Chavan in April this year when they were tracking phone details of mafia bosses on terrorist activities. Delhi Police has a total of over 1500 hours of conversation that they have recorded while trying to investigate the spot fixing scandal.   

“During one such conversation that we had intercepted, the conversation started about betting in IPL and that is how we got a tip that spot fixing was talking place in the matches played in IPL. These are sensitive information and the phone record cannot be shared with BCCI,” said the Delhi Police official.   

Meanwhile, BCCI members are also keen to take action against Sreesanth and the two other players because the members of the disciplinary committee have to travel abroad after June 12. Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley, who is also a member of the BCCI’s disciplinary committee, is also busy with the national executive meeting of BJP in Goa which is starting from June 7.   

According to the procedure adopted by BCCI, the erring players are questioned by the anti-corruption unit and evidence collected by the police is shared with disciplinary committee members before action is initiated against the players.     

Investigations done by Delhi Police have indicated that Sreesanth was allegedly involved in spot fixing and had received Rs.40 lakh while Chavan got Rs.60 lakh and Chandila had received Rs.20 lakh from bookies.