Sreesanth seeks judicial solace for lifting ban

Tainted Indian speedster S. Sreesanth has approached the Kerala High Court with a petition seeking the lifting of the ban imposed by the BCCI, even after a Delhi court exonerated him in the spot fixing case.

His stock fell after he was arrested in the midst of the 2013 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and was lodged at the Tihar jail.

The 34-year-old Sreesanth, who hails from here, had written to former Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai last month, who heads the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), seeking justice as he has lost four years.

In his petition that was filed on Wednesday, Sreesanth said that the BCCI disciplinary committee based their report on the Delhi police report.

He pointed out that in 2015, Delhi court exonerated him and two other players in the case registered by the Delhi Police which invoked the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) and hence his life ban should be lifted.

Sreesanth was crestfallen when the outgoing leadership of the BCCI treated him, especially denying him an NOC to play in this year's edition of the Scotland Cricket league.

On account of the life ban, Sreesanth cannot play even league cricket nor get access even for practice to any of the cricket grounds where the BCCI or the State Cricket Associations have a stake.

It was the BCCI Disciplinary Committee headed by the present Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley that slapped a life ban on Sreesanth.

Sreesanth is just the second Keralite to represent the country and in his brief career he has played in 27 Tests taking 87 wickets, and picked up 75 wickets from 53 One-day Internationals (ODIs) and seven wickets from 10 Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is).

--IANS

sg/gau/dg