We always knew he was innocent: Salgaonkar's daughter Pradnya

It was a day when a family that had quietly suffered for the past six months heaved a sigh of relief as veteran Pandurang Salgaonkar got a clean chit from the International Cricket Council (ICC) on allegations of trying to doctor the pitch for last year's ODI against New Zealand in Pune.
The ICC today gave its verdict with a six-month backdated suspension of Salgaonkar, which ends on April 24. The suspension according to ICC is based on "not reporting a corrupt approach" with categorical statement that "no evidence of corruption" has been found against the former Maharashtra pacer.
"Our family had gone through unimaginable turmoil during the last six months. The TV channel which tried to tarnish my father's reputation with unsubstantiated allegations didn't even realize what a family had to go through. My mother was in Intensive Care Unit," Salgaonkar's daughter Pradnya told PTI on her father's behalf.

She thanked ICC for releasing the verdict with every detail.
"We are very thankful to the ICC for their non-discriminatory approach while carrying out the investigations. We always knew that he (Salgaonkar) was innocent and was being framed. Our family would like to release a detailed statement," Pradnya said.
She made it clear that the family had faith in the system.

"We knew truth would prevail. We had faith in the system. What hurt us most is that my father had given his life to cricket. There were times when he put the game above family," the daughter said.
However, Pradnya refused to comment about whether Salgaonkar will be back to preparing pitches. Neither did she divulge whether the family will file a defamation suit against the two journalists, who were allegedly responsible for tarnishing the image of the 68-year-old.

"You people will have to give us some time. Right now, we have just received the verdict. We need to discuss and deliberate on the road ahead," Pradnya concluded.