Indian bowlers in court over spot-fixing

NEW DELHI (AFP) –

India’s Test paceman Shanthakumaran Sreesanth is pictured during a training session in Bangalore on March 3, 2011. Sreesanth and two other bowlers were to appear Tuesday in court over allegations that they accepted tens of thousands of dollars for spot-fixing, police said.

India’s Test paceman Shanthakumaran Sreesanth and two other bowlers were to appear 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 four million rupees (about $75,000) to give away 14 runs in an over in a match against Kings XI Punjab on May 9.

Newspaper reports Tuesday said investigators had seized two million rupees 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 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.