The Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) on Wednesday made it clear that it could not at this stage support tainted cricketer S Sreesanth, arrested last week for IPl spot-fixing, even as his parents and relatives, living in Kochi, seemingly plunged into gloom from the realisation that Sree was destined to face a long legal war far away from home.
On Wednesday, KCA general secretary TC Mathew said in Kozhikode that the association could not support Sreesanth at this stage and that it would stand follow the path of the BCCI which had taken a strong position on the matter. At this stage, the KCA could only express its sympathies for Sreesanth, he said.
Mathew said that there was no reason why the association should suspect the intentions of and investigations by the Delhi Police whose Commissioner was holding the rank of a Director General of Police. “We can only take such a position on such undesirable behavior,” said Mathew.
Stating that the KCA was not duty-bound to protect people like Sreesanth who got entangled in practices like spot-fixing in cricket matches, Mathew said that he could come back with renewed energies if he was proved innocent. It was improper to say that the KCA was trying to trample upon a fallen cricketer, he added.
Mathew said that it was impossible to support or oppose Sreesanth at this stage, adding that people might have their suspicions on him till the verdict of the court came. He added that the KCA would hold campaigns for cricketers to make them aware of the need not to fall into such situations.
At the same time, Sreesanth’s parents seemed to have plunged into gloom as they preferred to live without much contact with the outside world after the initial days of hectic interactions with the media. Close friends of Sreesanth’s family said they did not want to contact even close relatives. They had returned to their own home from their daughter’s house the other day.
“I think this is how fate turns life upside down,” said a friend of the Sreesanth family in Kochi. “A week ago, it was a happy family, drinking in cricket matches from the TV screen with their eyes and talking cricket over coffee lunch and dinner. I now understand that they don’t want to even think about cricket,” he said.
For the moment, everything seemed to be going against Sreesanth even in Kerala. Though some neighbours and young cricket fans had tried to show their support for him in the initial days, these exercises have now come to an end. The BPCl, where he was an assistant manager, suspended him the other day, stating that it was a routine action in such situations.
The Kerala Government had last weekend decided to drop an ad film featuring Sreesanth from the campaign for the State-owned Kerala lotteries’ Karunya, a one-issue-per-week lottery, the profits out of which were meant to go to the Karunya Benevolent Fund for treatment of poor patients suffering from serious diseases.
On Wednesday, musician-lyricist Kaithapram Damodaran Namboothiri said that he had decided to drop Sreesanth from the film he was making.
He said he still liked Sreesanth, appearing as a guest artist in the movie, personally but he had to take the decision to drop him in the present situation.