India pacer S Sreesanth’s ban for alleged spot-fixing came to an end on September 13, 2020. This concludes a seven-year punishment that was originally meant to be for life and was aggressively contested by the bowler.
In 2013, Rajasthan Royals players S Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan were arrested by Delhi Police for fraud and cheating in the 6th edition of the IPL.
Although a Delhi trial court dropped charges against the three cricketers in 2015, the decision had no bearing on the life bans imposed by the BCCI.
In early 2017, the Kerala High Court ordered the BCCI to lift the life ban on Sreesanth. But the BCCI challenged it and a division bench of the Kerala court later negated the judgement.
The ban was reduced to seven years by BCCI Ombudsman DK Jain in 2019 which ended this year.
The cricketer forayed into film and television during the tenure of his cricketing ban. He has been featured in popular shows like Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa and Bigg Boss, and has acted in Hindi, Malayalam and Kannada films.
Sreesanth also ventured into politics by joining the BJP in 2016 and was the party’s candidate from the Thiruvananthapuram consituency for the Kerala assembly polls.
The 37-year-old has already made it clear that he intends to resume at least his domestic career at the end of the ban. His home state Kerala has promised to consider him if he manages to prove his fitness.
Sreesanth has played 27 Tests and 53 ODIs for India, taking 87 and 75 wickets respectively. He has also taken seven wickets in 10 T20 Internationals.
