Kochi: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), challenging the Kerala High Court’s decision of lifting the lifetime ban on tainted pacer S. Sreesanth has also filed an appeal against the court on Monday.
The right-arm fast bowler was banned by the BCCI’s disciplinary committee from all forms of competitive cricket for his involvement in spot-fixing during the 2013 edition of the Indian Premier League.
On August 7, a single bench of the Kerala High Court lifted the ban on Sreesanth and the Indian cricket board argued that the court shouldn’t have intervened in this issue. BCCI CEO Rahul Johri’s appeal said that evidence led to the ban and that steps were taken to ensure natural justice.
The BCCI also made it clear to the Kerala High Court that the Delhi court acquitting the cricketer of all his charges wasn’t enough to lift the life ban.
The appeal further stated that the standard of proof which is needed in a disciplinary proceeding is lesser than what is actually needed in criminal proceeding in a court of law.
The single bench of the court, while criticising the ban said that the BCCI didn’t evaluate the available evidences as a whole but developed a, ‘piece-meal’ approach, which prevented it from knowing the truth behind this entire incident. It also said that it wouldn’t accept the BCCI’s stand that a low quality evidence is acceptable as the Indian board had proceeded in this case depending on a confession made by the paceman to the police.
The bench also argued that this confession might have forced out of the player, something which Sreesanth himself has said. It also counted out a telephonic conversation between Sreesanth, his friend Jiju Janardhan and a bookie saying that there’s isn’t any substantial proof which would suggest that the speedster was directly involved in it.
The court also said that the four-year ban he has suffered from so far is enough, even if he knew about betting.
Earlier in April this year, the BCCI had rejected Sreesanth’s request for a preview of the life ban, arguing that there wouldn’t be any compromise on their zero tolerance police towards corruption.