The Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) has suspended former India pacer S Sreesanth for three years from all cricketing activities in the state. He was suspended for allegedly making false derogatory statements in relation to the controversy surrounding Sanju Samson’s omission from the Champions Trophy selection.
The KCA said in a statement that the decision was taken at a special General Body meeting held in Kochi on April 30.
The Kerala Cricket Board has also sent notices for similarly inaccurate remarks to a few others. The list includes the father of Sanju Samson. They are also looking at options on how to go about with the response of Samson’s father. The cricket body is not happy with the response but they understand. However, in the case of Sreesanth, they are not happy at all. Sreesanth blamed the KCS for the non-selection of Sanju Samson for the Champions Trophy.
You should know that Sreesanth is also the co-owner of the Killam Aeries, a franchise in the Kerala Cricket League. Vinod Kumar, the KCA official, said that Sreesanth cannot be a part of any cricketing activities in the state for three years. However, he can continue to be a member of the franchise in the KCA cricket league.
“Since the franchise teams gave satisfactory responses to the notices, no further action will be taken against them. However, the meeting decided to advise greater caution when appointing members to team management,” the statement said.
Sreesanth made these comments about the non-selection of Samson for the Champions Trophy on local television, which the association thought was not correct. A notice was sent to him and based on his reply, the General Body decided to suspend the former India cricketer.
“His reply was not satisfactory. He essentially blamed us for Sanju’s exclusion from the Indian squad,” said Vinod. “We’ve issued notices to a few others as well. In fact, there were also accusations against us regarding Karun Nair not playing for Kerala. But those claims were completely inaccurate – Karun has never represented Kerala at any level; he has always played for Karnataka, including in age-group cricket.”