IPL: Sreesanth to appear in court over spot-fixing charges

And a petition has been registered in the Supreme Court to cancel the remaining matches.

S Sreesanth has been vilified in public after being charged with spot-fixing in the IPL this season. Biswaranjan Rout / AP Photo
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S Sreesanth, the India Test paceman, and two other bowlers were to appear on Tuesday in court over allegations that they accepted tens of thousands of dollars for spot-fixing, police said.

Sreesanth, along with his Rajasthan Royals teammates Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan, was arrested last week for deliberately bowling badly in specific overs during the ongoing Indian Premier League after striking deals with bookmakers.

"We will seek further custody of the players in the court as we need to interrogate them further," a senior police officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The officer said that 11 bookmakers who have been arrested as part of the same inquiry would also appear in the court in Saket, a suburb in southern Delhi.

Sreesanth, who has played 27 Tests for India, is alleged to have been paid Rs4 million (roughly Dh266,800) to give away 14 runs in an over in a match against Kings XI Punjab on May 9.

Newspaper reports on Tuesday said investigators had seized Rs2m stashed in a cricket kit bag and hidden at a house belonging to a relative of Chandila in the state of Haryana.

Police behind the arrests say the trio were acting under orders from international crime syndicates but were well aware of the rewards if they could manipulate events on the field throughout the cricket-mad region.

The Rajasthan Royals on Monday suspended the contracts of the three players and promised to cooperate fully with the authorities in their investigation.

"The franchise is in daily contact with the police authorities in Delhi, Jaipur and Mumbai for providing any cooperation or information that they might require," it said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court dismissed a petition on Tuesday seeking to scrap the remaining IPL matches amid growing concerns about corruption in sport.

Cricket fan Sudarsh Awasti, an architect by profession and self-declared social activist, had lodged the petition with the court demanding the scrapping of the remaining four IPL matches, including Sunday's final.

The apex court, however, said the competition would go on as scheduled.

The court also asked the Indian cricket board to submit a report within two weeks with details of the players' involvement in the scandal and what action were being taken against them.

Cricket is a gentlemen's game and it should remain so, the court observed.

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