High Court strikes down Azharuddin’s life ban

The Andhra Pradesh High Court has declared illegal the life ban imposed by the BCCI on former India captain Mohammad Azharuddin. A division bench of the High Court set aside the order of the City Civil Court, which had upheld the ban after Azharuddin had challenged it.

The BCCI had banned Azharuddin on 5 December 2000 for his involvement in match-fixing. Since then, Azharuddin, 49, has had no involvement in cricket-related matters and became a politician in 2009. He is currently a member of parliament from Moradabad constituency in Uttar Pradesh.

He said he was happy the issue was over and done with, and he would not be taking any further legal action: “It was a long drawn out legal case and it was painful. We fought in the court for 11 years. Finally the verdict has come and I am happy that the ban has been lifted by the court.

“I am not going to take any legal action against any authority and I don’t want to blame anybody for this also. Whatever had to happen has happened. I don’t have any complaint.”

The BCCI, for now, has adopted a wait-and-watch approach. “It would be premature to comment till our legal team goes through the court order,” BCCI chief administrative officer Ratnakar Shetty said.

Azharuddin played 99 Tests and scored 6,125 runs at an average of 45. He also played 334 ODIs, scoring 9,378 runs at 36.92 during a 15-year career.