Five domestic Indian cricketers – TP Sudhindra, Shalabh Srivastava, Mohnish Mishra, Amit Yadav and Abhinav Bali – have been banned by the BCCI after being found guilty on charges of corruption in a report submitted by Ravi Sawani. Here’s a look at these players, four of whom featured in the defunct Indian Cricket League (ICL), who were caught in a sting operation conducted by a news channel during IPL 5.
TP Sudhindra
Plays for: Madhya Pradesh and Deccan Chargers
Sanction: Life ban for “Receiving a consideration to spot-fix" in domestic cricket.
In a domestic career spanning almost seven years, the 28-year-old pace-bowling allrounder has made 27 first-class, 21 List A and 27 Twenty20 appearances.
Sudhindra earned an IPL contract with Deccan Chargers in 2012 on the back of an impressive Ranji Trophy season for Madhya Pradesh. Sudhindra was the leading
wicket-taker in the Elite division with 40 wickets at an average of 18.70.
In 2009, he returned to the domestic fray after the BCCI granted amnesty to 79 Indian players who had ended their association with the now defunct ICL. Sudhindra played for the Delhi Jets in the unofficial league.
In the sting conducted by an Indian news channel, Sudhindra purportedly agreed to bowl a no-ball for Rs. 50,000 in an Indore local league match when he was
approached by the channel’s reporters in April 2011. Images on the channel showed him bowling a huge no-ball on the second ball of his first over.
Shalabh Srivastava
Plays for: Uttar Pradesh and Kings XI Punjab
Sanction: Five-year ban for negotiating terms to fix a match and agreeing to those.
A former Under-19 player for India, who failed to break into the bigger leagues, left-arm pacer Srivastava had been instrumental in Uttar Pradesh’s Ranji Trophy triumph in the 2005-06 season. However, he was part of a player exodus from UP to Railways in 2007, following which he joined the ICL. Like Sudhindra,
Srivastava was in 2009 admitted back into the domestic fold after he severed ties with the unofficial league.
Srivastava has an impressive record of 130 first-class wickets at 31.65 in 41 matches, but has not played a first-class match for UP since December 2010. In
2010 he earned a contract with Kings XI Punjab and managed eight matches, taking six wickets at 42.50. In the 2011 IPL season, Srivastava took eight wickets
from six matches. He did not play a match in IPL 5.
In their sting operation, the Hindi news channel claimed that Srivastava agreed to spot-fix if he was paid Rs. 10 lakh to bowl a no-ball in the IPL.
Srivastava has denied any involvement in fixing.
Mohnish Mishra
Plays for: Madhya Pradesh and Pune Warriors
Sanction: One-year ban for “loose talk and unsubstantiated bragging".
The 28-year-old Mishra is a talented batsman on the domestic circuit, owning a first-class batting average of 44.86 and 39.76 in List A matches.
Having returned to the domestic scene after leaving the ICL – in which he played for Delhi Giants – Mishra was instrumental in helping MP return to the Elite
division of the Ranji Trophy in 2010-2011 with 543 runs. He had credited his time in the ICL and then for Deccan Chargers in the IPL as being instrumental in
finding form in first-class cricket. In IPL 3, Mishra played 11 matches for Deccan, followed by six matches for Pune Warriors India in 2011.
The sting operation quoted him as saying, “franchisees pay black money to us players. Pune gave me Rs. 1.5 crore, out of which Rs 1.2 crore was black money."
Amit Yadav
Plays for: Goa and Kings XI Punjab
Sanction: One-year ban for “loose talk and unsubstantiated bragging".
With 41 scalps and three fifties from 14 first-class matches for Goa in the Ranji Trophy, offspinner Amit Yadav, 22, is a handy bowling allrounder. However, Yadav has never featured in the playing XI for his IPL franchise Kings XI Punjab.
Abhinav Bali
Plays for: Himachal Pradesh
Sanction: One-year ban for “loose talk and unsubstantiated bragging".
After a couple of years with the ICL, Bali, a right-handed batsman who bowls part-time left-arm spin, transferred from Delhi to Himachal Pradesh. He debuted as a first-class cricketer for Delhi in 2004-05 and has scored 592 runs, including two centuries, in 13 first-class matches. He also has 13 wickets to his credit.