On this day in 2013: IPL spot-fixing scandal rocks cricketing world; Sreesanth among three players arrested

It has been nine years since the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2013 spot-fixing controversy first came to light. The date 16 May, 2013 won’t be forgotten by the Indian cricket enthusiasts. After the match-fixing nightmare of 2000, the cricket fans got another shock on a summer day in 2013 after knowing some well-known cricketers had been involved in another dark chapter of cricket.

Three Rajasthan Royals players— S Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila were arrested on the allegation of spot-fixing in that season of the Indian Premier League. In 2000, no cricketers got arrested but faced a mere ban. But this was the first time in India that prominent personalities were put behind bars for spot-fixing.

File image of S Sreesanth. Reuters

As per the report issued by the police, the accused cricketers apparently showed some gestures on the field to make the deal done. The biggest blow was that prominent Indian pacer Sreesanth was also a part of the scandal and was one of the accused. The major suspect was the Chennai Super Kings team member Gurunath Meiyappan who is also the son-in-law of the then Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President N Srinivasan. Srinivasan was also the MD of India Cements and owner of Chennai Super Kings. Meiyappan allegedly had put some bets on the results of certain IPL games. A few days later, another suspect Bollywood actor Vindoo Dara Singh was arrested on the same allegation.

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The BCCI initially appointed a probe panel to run the investigation and it gave clean chits to Srinivasan and he remained on his position. Aditya Verma, the chief of the Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB) turned out to be the frontman of the crusade against the BCCI. The Supreme Court built a panel headed by Justice Mukul Mudgal. Then Srinivasan finally agreed to step down from his chair temporarily and the cricketers were suspended from playing cricket in India and abroad by the BCCI.

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