The life ban slapped on promising Mumbai left-arm spinner Ankeet Chavan has left his longtime coach Satish Samant shocked. Chavan has also brought a bad name to Mumbai Cricket Association considering its rich heritage and impressive past record.
“I am speechless, shocked. But it is a BCCI decision, they have given their verdict and we have to accept it,” said former Mumbai U-19 coach Samant who also mentored Chavan in the Air India team.
Samant still saw hope for the tainted cricketer as he hasn’t been found guilty in court. “He hasn’t been proved guilty yet in the court. The case is going on and there is still hope for him. If he gets all clear in the court then BCCI may be prompted to reverse its decision and Ankeet can play again,” he hoped.
Chavan had maintained he was clean after his bail, but he and his family members were not available for comment after he along with S. Sreesanth was hit with a life ban for the IPL-6 spot-fixing scam. Amit Singh and Siddharth Trivedi also faced punishment while Mumbai left-arm spinner Harmeet Singh escaped action due to lack of evidence.
“We have a zero tolerance policy. It is a sad day for him but a lesson for others that you should not indulge in corruption. It is shocking that despite being the leading wicket-taker (33) for Mumbai, Ankeet was involved in match fixing,” said MCA Joint Secretary Nitin Dalal.
Dalal added that Ankeet would not receive the MCA’s cash award for being part of the victorious Ranji Trophy team. “To give him the prize or not is completely the association’s discretion. He has been found guilty and we will not release his prize.”
On May 29, BCCI media manager Devendra Prabhudesai had inadvertently read out his name while calling out the members of the team but nobody had come forward to receive the cheque.
Chavan has already been suspended by employers Air India and didn’t feature in the probables list for the forthcoming domestic season released by MCA.