Kerala High Court gives green signal to Sreesanth's plea to lift the life ban imposed on him

The Kerala High Court on Friday gave a green signal to former Indian pacer Sreesanth’s application which he pleads to chairman Vinod Rai and 3 members of the cricketing body seeking to lift the ban imposed on him in the petition. The court has declared 22nd May as the date for the final hearing.

The newly appointed board members comprise of Ramchandra Guha, Diana Eduljee and Vikram Limaya with the chairman being Vinod Rai. Sreesanth said that he can expect justice and arbitration of his case only from the newly appointed board members.

The court had asked BCCI, “Why can’t you give him an opportunity to present his side as the decision to ban him was taken without hearing him?” The BCCI counsel replied there was no provision for review. Sreesanth was banned for life after his alleged involvement in match-fixing during the 2013 IPL.

On May 16, 2013, the Delhi police detained Sreesanth and two other members of the franchise Rajasthan Royal for which the trio was playing. Ajit Chandila and Ankit Chavan were the other two who were also arrested. A day after he was arrested, Sreesanth apparently pleaded guilty to his offence. The pacer though has a totally different version as he has maintained his stance that he was forced to sign on the confession statements.

Police reported that Sreesanth was in a drunken state when he was detained and the pacer though he was being arrested for this offence. He was allegedly present with a woman in an SUV outside a five-star hotel on Carter Road in Mumbai.

He has appeared in 27 Tests and 53 ODI’s for the national team and is only the 2nd bowler from Kerala after Tinu Youhanan to represent India. His career has been marred with controversies and inconsistent performance and it shows on his record too. He bagged only 87 wickets in Tests at an unimpressive average of 37 and has scalped 75 wickets in ODI’s at an average of 33.