Sreesanth keen to play for another country

dubai — Banned Indian cricketer S Sreesanth is looking outside India to ply his ‘trade’ after a division bench of the Kerala high court set aside a single bench’s verdict after BCCI’s appeal.

However, the BCCI acting Secretary, Amitabh Choudhary, has ruled out any possibility of Sreesanth playing cricket anywhere in the world.

“Once a player is banned by an ICC full member, he cannot play for any other country, a full member or an associate member,” Choudhary said in an interview with the Republic TV, an Indian news channel on Friday.

A single bench of the court had on September 18 ordered BCCI to lift the life ban on the Kerala Ranji star, finding that it cannot agree to the cricket board’s stand that Sreesanth’s exoneration by a Delhi court in 2015 doesn’t matter.

Now, Sreesanth has hinted that he could look at other country to play cricket. “BCCI has imposed the ban, not ICC. If not India, I can play for any other country,” Sreesanth said in an interview to Asianet, a Kerala-based Malayalam television network, during his visit to Dubai on Friday.

“I am 34 now and I can only play for maximum six more years. As a person who loves cricket, I want to play the game,” he added.

He also said that BCCI was a private firm. “It is only us who say

Once a player is banned by an ICC full member, he cannot play for any other country Amitabh Choudhary

that this is the Indian team, but you know BCCI is a private body after all.”

“So, if I play for any other country, it probably may be the same. Yes, representing Kerala in Ranji Trophy is different. I had hoped to win Ranji Trophy, Irani Trophy for Kerala, but the decision rests upon the BCCI,” said Sreesanth.

Sreesanth was banned for life by the BCCI in the wake of the IPL 2013 spot-fixing scandal. However, the former India pacer filed a writ petition in February this year, pleading that in 2015, a trial court had dropped criminal charges filed against him by the Delhi Police and therefore, the BCCI should lift the ban as well.

BCCI argued that the criminal proceedings initiated by the Delhi Police against the cricketer had no bearing on its own investigation. A division bench of the Kerala High Court comprising chief justice Navaniti Prasad Singh and Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan upheld the BCCI appeal and restored the life ban on Sreesanth earlier this week. The bench said there was no violation of natural justice against the cricketer, as he had claimed.