Shanthakumaran Sreesanth has been in the news ever since Kerala High Court instructed BCCI to lift the life ban imposed on him. He was found guilty of spot-fixing in the Indian Premier League 2013 while playing for Rajasthan Royals. The pacer, along with teammates Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan, was suspended from playing the game.
The video evidence against Sreesanth showed that he had used a white towel to carry out the fixing scandal. But the 34-year-old has come out with a statement that he used the towel to look like his idol Alan Donald and it had nothing to do with fixing.
“They said Jiju (Janardhan) apparently said I would either keep an arm band or towel or vermilion or something like that. I used to do all that because I love Allan Donald. I have done that before too. I would even wear plenty of zinc oxide on my face, like Donald. Does that mean those matches were fixed too? Is it a crime to be superstitious? I believed that wearing those things would help me when I was going through a bad phase in my bowling,” said Sreesanth as reported by Hindustan Times.
The Kerala fast bowler went on to say that he would not jeopardize his career just for Rs 10 Lakh and rubbished all the allegations of fixing.
“In fact, in the first over I asked Kumar Dharmasena (the umpire) if it was okay if I kept a towel. Surely, the stump microphones picked that up. I did that only because it made me feel like Donald. Why would someone fix for Rs10 lakh? If you’re accusing me, say Rs10 crore or something. Why would I jeopardise my career, my life for Rs10 lakh?” he added.
Ever since the Kerala High Court ruled in Sreesanth’s favor, he has made his intentions clear about representing the nation once again. It still remains to be seen whether BCCI allows him to do so or his dreams would remain as they are.
