Life ban on Chandila and five-year ban for Shah issued by BCCI

Mumbai: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) slapped a life ban on Ajit Chandila, while Hiken Shah has been banned for five years on charges of spot-fixing and corruption in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

The BCCI’s disciplinary committee, which consists of board president Shashank Manohar, Niranjan Shah and Jyotiraditya Scindia, met at the Cricket Centre here and pronounced the orders in the case of former Rajasthan Royals off-spinner Chandila and Mumbai batsman Shah.

Both the accused appeared in person before the committee on December 24, 2015, and were given time till January 4 to file a written response to the charges against them.

The committee met again on January 5 when Shah appeared in person, made an oral submission and a written reply to the findings of the enquiry against him.

Chandila, who was arrested by the police for spot-fixing during IPL matches in 2013 along with his then teammates S. Sreesanth and Ankeet Chavan, “is held guilty of misconduct and corruption” under various articles of the BCCI Anti Corruption Code”.

“Ajit Chandila is banned for life from playing or representing cricket in any form or to be associated in any way with the activities of the Board or its Affiliates,” BCCI said in a statement.

Sreesanth and Chavan were later handed life bans by the BCCI while Chandila was suspended from the game for the last couple of years.

Shah is “held guilty of committing breach of Articles 2.1.1; Article 2.1.2 and Article 2.1.4 of the BCCI Anti Corruption Code”, according to the BCCI.

“Hiken Shah is banned for five years from playing or representing cricket in any form or to be associated in any way with the activities of the Board or its Affiliates,” the statement added.

Shah made a corrupt approach to one of his colleagues from first-class cricket, who was also a member of one of the IPL teams in 2015.

Meanwhile, the disciplinary committe rejected former Pakistan umpire Asad Rauf’s request for a “de novo enquiry” to be held by appointing another inquiry officer. Rauf did not appear in person but sent a reply stating that no fair inquiry has been conducted in his matter.

“The committee gave him a final opportunity to submit his written statement if any, and produce documents on which he proposes to rely on before February 9, 2016. The date of the hearing and the final order has been scheduled for February 12,” BCCI’s statement clarified.