IPL sting: BCCI suspends five players

New Delhi: The BCCI has provisionally suspended the five uncapped Indian players allegedly involved in illegal betting activities as claimed in a sting operation by a Hindi news channel on Monday.

These players are Mohnish Mishra, TP Sudhindra, Shalabh Srivastava, Abhinav Bali and Amit Yadav.

Mishra plays for Madhya Pradesh in all forms of domestic cricket as well as IPL franchise Pune Warriors India; Sudhindra, also from MP, was the leading wicket-taker in the Elite division with 40 wickets that earned him a contract with Deccan Chargers; Srivastava, a former Under-19 left-arm pacer, has played two seasons for Kings XI Punjab; Yadav is an offspinning allrounder from Goa on Punjab’s roster for IPL 5; and Bali is a first-class cricketer from Delhi.

Srivastava, who earlier on Tuesday denied any role in fixing matches, told CNN-IBN: "We respect the decision taken by [the] Governing Council [and] will participate in the inquiry set up by [the] BCCI."

When contacted by CricketNext, Bali, who has played 13 first-class matches as well as in the now-defunct ICL, said he was ready to comply with the BCCI and would speak to the media at a later stage.

Meanwhile, BCCI vice-president Rajeev Shukla said further action will be taken after the inquiry. "The IPL Governing Council met on teleconference today at 2:30 pm and they recommended to the BCCI president [N Srinivasan] for strict action against those players who were found guilty and found suspicious on the television footage shown on India TV.

"Since it also involved matter relating to other matches and previous IPL, it was referred to the president. The president after due consideration has decided to have a preliminary inquiry for which a commissioner has been appointed. Mr Ravi Sawani, who was the ICC ACSU chief and now advisor, will conduct the inquiry and he will submit a report to the Disciplinary Committee. Pending inquiry the five players have been suspended from all cricket activities with immediate effect. We will await the report of the preliminary inquiry and proper action will be taken only after that. It will be made public in 15-20 days."

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