Vineet Saran, the ombudsman of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), has reduced former Rajasthan Royals player Ajit Chandila’s life ban from cricket to seven years.
Ajit Chandila and two of his Rajasthan Royals colleagues from the 2013 IPL, S Sreesanth and Ankeet Chavan, were given lifelong bans from cricket after being suspected of spot-fixing. This was the greatest controversy that had utterly rocked the sixth edition of the cash-rich league and wreaked havoc on the IPL’s operations as well.
According to the Indian Express, Vineet Saran’s formal decision detailed all of the claims and charges levelled against Chandila, as well as the steps that he had to go through, and that the ban was being lowered.
The ruling said, “The current case stems from Case Crime No 20/2013 dated 09.05.2013 filed with the Special Cell of Delhi Police against the Applicant on charges of spot-fixing in Indian Premier League (“IPL”) cricket matches.
In the meanwhile, the BCCI banned the Applicant from all cricketing activities on May 17, 2013. Aside from the criminal proceedings, the BCCI also launched disciplinary actions against the Applicant.
As a result, the Applicant’s Representation of 04.11.2019 is accepted, and his petition for parity with Sreesanth and Ankeet Chavan is granted. The life ban imposed on him by an order of the BCCI Disciplinary Committee dated 18.01.2016 has been reduced to seven (7) years effective 18.01.2016.”
Importantly, the Kerala High Court removed Sreesanth’s life sentence after the 2013 controversy in 2017. In his ruling, Judge A Muhamed Mustaque ruled that all of the claims against the player were based on circumstantial evidence and there was no solid proof. This transfer enabled Sreesanth to return to competitive cricket by playing Kerala in the Ranji Trophy.
