IPL spot fixing sting- 5 players hanging

The Indian Premier League’s (IPL) Governing Council on Tuesday, suspended five players from cricket, who were caught in a TV channel’s sting operation for their alleged involvement in spot-fixing.

IPL chairman, Rajiv Shukla made an announcement on Tuesday evening and briefed the media. These players are suspended pending an inquiry.

TP Sudhindra (Deccan Chargers), Amit Yadav (Kings XI Punjab), Abhinav Bali, Mohnish Mishra (Pune Warriors) and Shalab Srivastava (Kings XI Punjab) are the suspended players. Apart from Sudhindra and Mohnish, the other three players haven’t played in this year’s IPL.

IPL Governing Council members and BCCI officials had a teleconference for over six hours on Tuesday and arrived at this decision.

“The Governing Council has recommended to BCCI President, strong possible action to those who are found guilty or suspicious (in spot-fixing) in TV report. After that conversation, there are other matches which are not of IPL in the TV report, they will also be referred to BCCI. A preliminary inquiry will be conducted by Ravi Sawani, who is heading BCCI’s anti-corruption unit,” Shukla said.

“Pending inquiry, the five players are suspended from all cricket activities with immediate effect. There names are TP Sudhindra, Amit Yadav, Abhinav Bali, Mohnish Mishra and Shalab Srivastava. We will await the report of the preliminary inquiry and proper action will be taken only after that,” Shukla added.

The IPL Governing Council has acted after India TV channel claimed to have exposed these players in spot-fixing through a sting operation on Monday.

The 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 spot-fixing is not only prevalent in IPL but also that first class matches are fixed and women played an important role in match-fixing.

Superstars of Indian cricket and even an international player, who is a captain of one of the teams, are involved in fixing the matches, the channel said in a statement.

Asked about the sting operation, BCCI chief N Srinivasan said, “We will ensure that the integrity of the game is protected. BCCI believes in the integrity of the game. We will take the strictest possible action. We will have to have the tapes and the moment we see it, whoever is the player, we will take very very strict action.”

“If there is any truth in it… It is a fact that we will take strictest action. Even if it means suspending the player immediately. But (that has to be) based on some evidence and fact, for which I have asked the COO of IPL Sundar Raman to request for the tape,” he said.

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