The Mumbai Cricket Association has asked cricketer Ankeet Chavan to approach the court to revoke his life ban instead of requesting the state body to reduce his punishment.
The MCA arrived at this decision at its apex council meeting on Friday , with an office-bearer stating that the onus is on BCCI and court to decide whether Chavan’s ban period shall be over or not.
“The life ban was imposed by the BCCI. As it stands now, the BCCI doesn’t want to review it, a policy it has maintained even in previous cases like Mohammad Azharuddin or Manoj Prabhakar.
They got reprieves from the courts, something S Sreesanth too had done. Ankeet will have to go to court and obtain an order,”
an MCA office-bearer was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.
Chavan was one of the three cricketers, alongside S Sreesanth and Ajit Chandila, who were banned for life following their alleged involvement in the 2013 IPL spot-fixing scandal.
The former spinner had recently requested the MCA to have his life ban revoked and allow him to resume playing. Chavan mentioned that his quantum of punishment has been reduced and he has an order for the same from the ombudsman of BCCI.
Chavan’s plea is to be treated on par with Sreesanth, who is now allowed to play senior domestic cricket by his state association in Kerala following a Supreme Court order last year. Despite getting the punishment for the same offence, however, Chavan has had no respite like Sreesanth.
“I have not had any communication from the MCA yet. I don’t know what I can do,”
he was quoted as saying.
Chavan said he has an order from BCCI ethics officer DK Jain to have his ban period reduced to seven years, which, considering the dates of the IPL scandal, is now over.
