Sreesanth, Chavan banned for life for IPL spot fixing

Rajasthan Royals cricketers Shantakumaran Sreesanth and Ankeet Chavan have been banned for life here Friday for their involvement in the spot fixing scandal in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Amit Singh and Siddharth Trivedi, who too have been found involved in the scandal, have been handed down bans for five years and one year respectively. The bans were announced by the disciplinary committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

Young left-arm spinner Harmeet Singh has been let off with a warning while Ajit Chandila's case will be taken up later.

"Sreesanth and Chavan have been banned for life for their involvement in the spot fixing scandal. Amit Singh has been banned for five years while Siddharth Trivedi for one year. Harmeet Singh has been let off with a warning for not reporting to the authorities that the bookies had approached him," BCCI vice-president Niranjan Shah told IANS.

BCCI president Narayanaswami Srinivasan chaired the meeting with vice-presidents Niranjan Shah and Arun Jaitley, who were the other members of the panel.

"The evidence was different against each of the accused. The decision of the disciplinary committee is binding. Since the decision is about the players, it need not be ratified by the annual general meeting or any other body," Jaitley told reporters.

The cricketers were caught in the IPL scandal and chief of BCCI's anti-corruption unit Ravi Sawani recommended ban on them in his report submitted to the board last month.

Sawani, a former chief of the International Cricket Council (ICC) anti-corruption unit, was asked to investigate the alleged involvement of Sreesanth, Chavan and Chandila in conceding a pre-determined number of runs per over in exchange for money during the IPL's sixth edition which concluded recently.