Indian pacer S Sreesanth, who was first accused of spot-fixing and subsequently banned by the Board of Control for Cricket in India from taking part in any form of cricket, has clarified the allegations, saying that he never agreed to spot-fixing, despite being asked to perform in a certain manner.
“I was supposed to give 14 plus runs in one over and I gave five runs in four balls, no no-balls, no wide, not single slower ball in an IPL game. I bowled at 135 plus, that too after having 12 surgeries on the toe,” he said in a video uploaded by Sportskeeda on their Youtube Channel.
Reasoning why he wouldn’t even have dared to go for something like spot-fixing, the 38-year-old said, “I was trying to make a comeback to the national squad and I was only looking to play against South Africa in September. A person focussing on that, why would I do it for just 10 lakhs?”
“At that time, I used to have party bills bigger than the two lakhs which I used to play with my cards. If I had that much cash, why would I not use it?” asked the Kerala ban who was banned for a lifetime by BCCI after the 2013 fixing incident in which he along with Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan were framed.
Sreesanth thanked the judiciary which eventually reduced the ban to seven years and also cleared him off of all charges. “I will not take any names but other people were also involved in it. But the experience that I, my friends and my family circle had was near death,” he said remembering the harrowing time.
Sreesanth eventually made comeback and played in the Syed Mushtaq Ali and Vijay Hazare Trophy matches for Kerala in 2020. He even put his name in the IPL auction hat to have a kind of poetic justice to end his career exactly where it was forcefully ended in 2013, but couldn’t find a buyer.
“I don’t have regrets. All I can say is that it is because of the night lief that I had and also the friend circle which used me without my knowledge is what hurt the most,” he said.