Life ban is too harsh, pleads desperate S Sreesanth
Sreesanth’s lawyer, Salman Khurshid, has appealed to the Supreme Court that the punishment handed to the pacer was 'too harsh' and he should be allowed to return to cricket. At the age of 36, Sreesanth is at the end of his physical peak and faces a race against the clock to get back on the pitch.
Former India pacer, S Sreesanth, who was part of the Indian squad that won the 2011 ICC ODI World Cup on home soil is one the modern examples of how a glorified sportsperson can go from zero to hero in absolutely no time. Sreesanth was slapped with a life ban by the BCCI from all forms of cricket after his alleged involvement in spot-fixing during the 2013 IPL season.
The Delhi Police had arrested Sreesanth, along with cricketers Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan on charges of spot-fixing. As many as 36 accused in the spot-fixing case, including Sreesanth, Chavan and Chandila, were let-off by the trial court in July, 2015. However, BCCI refused to alter its decision on the same.
Now, the former KXIP player’s lawyer Salman Khurshid has appealed to a bench of Justices, Ashok Bhushan and Ajay Rastogi, that his client has been acquitted by trial court in the spot-fixing case and the life ban should be revoked. Khurshid argued that other players whose names had also cropped up in the IPL spot-fixing scandal were banned for 3-5 years while the life ban imposed on the Kerala cricketer was ‘too harsh’.
"Life ban is too harsh. He is already 36. He cannot even play local club cricket because of the ban. He wants to play cricket and he got some offer from England but the offer will disappear if he is not allowed to play," Khurshid said on behalf of Sreesanth.
The senior advocate went on to add that no other cricketer has been treated so badly in the past as he used the case of former captain Mohammad Azharuddin as an example. Azharuddin faced a similar sanction after he was was involved in a match-fixing scandal. However,BCCI allowed the former India skipper to contest for the post of president of Hyderabad Cricket Association, Khurshid claimed.
CoA’s representative, Senior advocate Parag Tripathi, maintained that there should be zero tolerance against any kind of corruption and malpractices in cricket and the harsh punishment imposed on Sreesanth was done so in order to set an example for the rest of the cricketers to not repeat the bowler’s mistakes.
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