BCCI suspends five cricketers over spot-fixing claims

Five uncapped Indian players were today suspended with immediate effect pending completion of an inquiry as a rattled BCCI cracked the whip on tainted cricketers in the wake of a television sting operation which claimed to have exposed corruption in the cashrich IPL The strong action to suspend Pune Warriors39 Mohnish Mishra Kings XI Punjab39s Shalabh Srivastava and Amit Yadav Deccan Chargers39 T P Sudhindra and Abhinav Bali was taken after a lengthy teleconference of top BCCI officials and members of the IPL39s Governing Council Mohnish Mishra is one of the cricketers suspended by the BCCIu00a0 The BCCI decided to conduct a preliminary inquiry into the incident by Ravi Sawani the former chief of the ICC39s AntiCorruption Unit who is now heading the BCCI39s newly setup AntiCorruption Unit quotThe IPL Governing Council met on teleconference today at 230pm and they recommended to the BCCI President for strict action against those players who were found guilty and found suspicious on the television footage shown on India TVquot IPL Chairman Rajiv Shukla told reporters here quotSince it also involved matter relating to other matches and previous IPL it was referred to the President The president after due consideration has decided to have a preliminary inquiry for which a commissioner has been appointed Mr Ravi Sawani who was the ICC ACSU chief and now advisor will conduct the inquiry and he will submit a report to the Disciplinary Committeequot he said quotPending inquiry the five players have been suspended from all cricket activities with immediate effect We will await the report of the preliminary inquiry and proper action will be taken only after thatquot he added Earlier IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla had said strict action would be taken if any player is found to be involved in spotfixing Top BCCI officials have already started discussing the issue among themselves amid indications that stern action could be taken against a few players who are shown in the tv sting operation quotThe IPL Governing Council will discuss the issue We have asked for the tapes We will study the tapes and then take a decisionquot a top BCCI source said A TV channel had yesterday claimed to have blown the lid off quotmurky dealsquot in the IPL among players organisers owners and big guns of Indian cricket prompting the BCCI to warn that stringent action will be taken if the report is found to be true The Hindi news channel claimed it had done a sting operation in which many players confessed on hidden camera they get much more than their prescribed auction under the table According to the channel its operation also revealed that spotfixing is not only prevalent in IPL but also that first class matches are fixed and women played an important role in matchfixing The channel had claimed it had done a sting operation in which many players confessed on hidden camera they get much more than their prescribed auction under the table According to the channel its operation also revealed that spotfixing is not only prevalent in IPL but also that first class matches are fixed and women played an important role in matchfixing The IPL39s Governing Council had sought video footage from the TV channel and is understood to have scrutinised the tapes before taking the decision of suspending the players u00a0 That some tough measures would be taken against the players was evident when the BCCI president N Srinivasan who is currently at Kodaikanal made it clear that no player would be spared if found guilty He said he was surprised by the sting operation and reiterated the BCCI39s zero tolerance towards corruption in cricket quotWe will not tolerate this nonsense We have zero tolerance on corruption and you will not be disappointed by the action we takequot he said adding some evidence has been found against some playersu00a0 BCCI has decided to act prompty on this issue Hindilanguage India TV showed Sudhindra of the Deccan Chargers allegedly agreeing to bowl prearranged noballs in a domestic match while Kings XI Punjab player Srivastava was reportedly heard boasting he could do the same in the IPL The channel claimed it had taped seamer Srivastava telling its reporters he could deliver a noball in the IPL for Rs 10 lakh about 18500 Srivastava 30 who has played two seasons of firstclass cricket for the northern state of Uttar Pradesh denied the allegation and threatened to take the TV channel to court quotThe voice which suggests that I am ready to spotfix is not minequot he told the Indian Express newspaper quotI am ready to clarify this to the BCCI my team owners and the IPL governing council quotI will definitely file a case against themquotu00a0 Srivastava claimed that he was innocent and would put forward his side of story before the inquiry commissioner quotI deny the charges but don39t want to say anything more as of now I will put forward my views before the inquiry commissioner I will wait for that I respect the BCCIquot he said Shalabh Srivastava claims he39s innocent and that the video has been doctored PicAFP Another Kings XI Punjab player Yadav was taped saying he had reason to believe that last season39s IPL match against Delhi Daredevils was fixed but could not substantiate his claimu00a0 The EditorinChief and Chairman of India TV Rajat Sharma stood by the story and said they had offered money to over a dozen cricketers after which they had aired the clips of cricketers who had offered to take money to either switch teams or for spot fixing in matches He denied that any of the big players had sought money from the channel39s reporters who had posed as agents quotAs far as I know the big players in IPL are clean This is possible since they have already made enough money To me it39s not a system failure but seems some individual players are corruptquot he said While conducting the sting operation Sharma said they had come across three cricketers who had refused to take money from the reporters The BCCI later issued a release expressing concern at the incident quotAn emergent meeting of the IPL Governing Council took place on teleconference today The Governing Council discussed the video footage shown on India TV since last evening of a 39Sting39 operation in connection with the IPLquot the release said quotThe members felt that the areas covered by the footage warranted immediate action by the President BCCI under the 39Memorandum and Rules and Regulations39 of the BCCI against the players alleged to be involvedquot it saidu00a0