Neeraj Kumar, the Chief of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Anti-Corruption and Security Unit, has rejected S.Sreesanth's allegations of discrimination against the governing body
Neeraj Kumar, the Chief of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Anti-Corruption and Security Unit, has rejected S.Sreesanth's allegations of discrimination against the governing body. Earlier, pacer Sreesanth, who has been banned over match-fixing, claimed that the BCCI has separate rules for him and he is being singled out.
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S Sreesanth
Talking to ANI, Kumar said, 'I don't think there is any discrimination. Even the other banned players are also not playing international cricket. If they are playing at some local level where the BCCI doesn't come into picture, we are not aware of it.' He further said, 'Sreesanth can plead that he is innocent, but according to us he is guilty. He can contest the charges as a citizen and it's under judicial process so I can't comment.'
Sreesanth was banned by the BCCI for his alleged role in the Indian Premier League (IPL) spot-fixing in 2013. A single-judge bench of the Kerala High Court had earlier passed an order that the bowler's life-ban be lifted but a division bench of the Kerala High Court upheld the life time ban imposed by the BCCI on Sreesanth. Furthermore, Kumar claimed that the corruption has been up-rooted form top-level cricket. 'I believe that corruption at the higher levels of tier 'A' games has completely died down,' he said.
'We have noticed corruption at lower levels of cricket, like T20 leagues. We have taken action in collaboration with the police. For instance, at Jaipur we have arrested 20 people for corruption. Similarly, several other corrupt leagues were disrupted,' he added. When asked about how to limit batting, he said, 'Batting is a different issue, it is punishable under gambling act. Most of the while it is not detected as it is very rampant.' Noting that fixing is a threat to cricket, Kumar said, 'If the game is going on and some people are batting in the backdrop, it doesn't affect the integrity of the game, but if they try to fix the outcome of the game by compromising with players then it is something we should take notice of.'
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