Chandila banned for life, Hiken Shah for five years

Former Rajasthan Royals offspinner Ajit Chandila has been banned for life from all official cricketing activities for his role in the IPL 2013 spot-fixing case

ESPNcricinfo staff

18-Jan-2016

1:14

Ajit Chandila: Timeline from 2013 to 2016

Former Rajasthan Royals offspinner Ajit Chandila has been banned for life from all official cricketing activities for his role in the IPL 2013 spot-fixing case. Former Mumbai batsman Hiken Shah, who had been suspended by the BCCI in July 2015 for making an "illegal approach" to a player, was handed a five-year ban.

The BCCI anti-corruption code clauses Chandila breached

2.1.1 Fixing or contriving in any way or otherwise influencing improperly, or being a party to any effort to fix or contrive in any way or otherwise influence improperly, the result, progress, conduct or any other aspect of any match or event.
2.1.2 Seeking, accepting, offering or agreeing to accept any bribe or other reward to fix or to contrive in any way or otherwise to influence improperly the result, progress, conduct or any other aspect of any match or event.
2.1.3 Failing or refusing, for reward, to perform to one's abilities in a match.
2.1.4 Soliciting, inducing, enticing, instructing, persuading, encouraging or facilitating (a) any participant to commit an offence under any of the foregoing provisions of this Article 2.1 and/or (b) any other person to do any act that would be an offence if that person were a participant.
2.2.2 Soliciting, inducing, enticing, instructing, persuading, encouraging, facilitating or authorising any other party to enter into a bet for the direct or indirect benefit of the participant in relation to the result, progress, conduct or any other aspect of any match or event.
2.2.3 Ensuring the occurrence of a particular incident in a match or event, which occurrence is to the participant's knowledge the subject of a bet and for which he/she expects to receive or has received any reward.
2.4.1 Providing or receiving any gift, payment or other benefit (whether of a monetary value or otherwise) in circumstances that the participant might reasonably have expected could bring him/her or the sport of cricket into disrepute.

A release from the BCCI said Chandila was "held guilty of misconduct and corruption", having breached seven clauses of Article 2 of the BCCI's anti-corruption code relating to corruption and betting. Shah, the release said, had breached three clauses of Article 2, all related to corruption.

The BCCI's disciplinary committee had met in Mumbai on Monday, and pronounced the penalties against the two.

This is the first definite action taken against Chandila by the BCCI, since the Indian board suspended him in May 2013 following his arrest by Delhi Police for his alleged involvement in corruption in the IPL. While the others arrested at that point - former Royals players Sreesanth and Ankeet Chavan - were banned from cricket by the BCCI on September 13, 2013, a decision on Chandila was deferred as there was no chance for Ravi Sawani - who led the BCCI's probe into the matter and whose report formed the basis for the board's actions - to question him; he had been in police or judicial custody since his arrest on May 16 till September 9, 2013, when he was granted bail, while Sreesanth and Chavan were out on bail since June 11. Since then the BCCI has been embroiled in internal turmoil and engaged in an administrative makeover stemming from the spot-fixing scandal, possibly pushing Chandila's case on the back-burner.

On the legal front, charges against all three players were dropped by a trial court in Delhi in July 2015, on the court on grounds of lack of sufficient evidence for prosecution under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). The court's decision did not have an impact on the life bans imposed by the BCCI.

Shah, meanwhile, it is understood, had approached a Mumbai team-mate ahead of IPL 2015. He was found to be in breach of Articles 2.1.1, 2.1.2 and 2.1.4 of the BCCI anti-corruption code (see sidebar for details).

Hiken Shah Ajit Chandila India