Lucknow: Shalabh Srivastava, the Uttar Pradesh fast bowler who was banned for five years by the BCCI for conspiring to fix a match, has decided to take legal action against the Indian board. According to a report in Mail Today, Srivastava, 31, has sought to move a court of law against the sentence handed down by the BCCI by approaching the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court.
“There are six respondents in the case. They are the Union of India through the Ministry of Sports, the BCCI, the BCCI president [N Srinivasan], the BCCI secretary [Sanjay Jagdale], the inquiry commission, and the BCCI disciplinary committee,” senior advocate Prashant Chandra told the Indian daily.
On June 30, following a sting conducted by Hindi news channel India TV in May, the BCCI’s disciplinary committee found Srivastava and four other domestic players guilty of agreeing, and negotiating terms, to fix a match though no fixing eventually took place. The committee, which handed out the sentences to Srivastava, Madhya Pradesh’s TP Sudhindra and Mohnish Mishra, Goa offspinner Amit Yadav and Himachal Pradesh allrounder Abhinav Bali, has since been dissolved following the handing out of the respective sentences. Mail Today also reported that a bench comprising Justices Uma Nath Singh and Virendra Kumar Dixit will hear the case, slated for later on Thursday.
Earlier, Srivastava had written to the Indian Sports Ministry looking for amnesty but was told that since the implications of illegal activities took place during the privately-run IPL, there was little the sporting authorities could do.