Even my worst enemies should not have such experience,” was one of the first sentences uttered by cricketer S Sreesanth, who was released from the Tihar Jail on Tuesday night after a Delhi court granted him bail in the IPl spot-fixing case the previous day, upon his arrival at hometown Kochi on Wednesday morning.
“My only wish is to play cricket again. I have full faith in the Indian Judiciary. I will face all the legal procedures with patience and am confident that I can prove my innocence. I am happy to be home, by god’s grace. Swami Saranam,” Sreesanth said after reaching his sister’s house in Thripunithura, some 20 km away from Kochi city.
Sreesanth, who arrived at the Kochi International Airport at Nedumbassery from Delhi by an Air India flight at 9.20 am on Wednesday, was received by his relatives, friends and scores of fans. Several of the fans garlanded him and shouted slogans praising him while one presented a shawl to him. “I feel fortunate that I could come back home,” he said at the airport.
At the residence of his sister Divya at Thripunithura, parents received him with passionate hugs and relatives with sweets and kuravas (traditional howls of joy). “We are very happy that he is home.
God is great,” said mother Savithri Devi. His father Santhakumaran Nair said, “We are happy indeed. But our anxieties will fade away only when he gets totally exonerated.”
Sreesanth told newsmen that there were indications of a conspiracy behind his arrest. “I was arrested in such a way that there seemed to be a conspiracy. It will come out soon. But I have no complaints… against anybody. Those 27 days (Sreesanth was arrested from Mumbai on May 16) were a big experience. It taught me many things,” he said.
Asked whether he felt that he was trapped by somebody, he said he had no idea about things like that. “I am not complaining about anyone,” he repeated, adding that he did not even find fault with Jiju Janardhanan, his friend whom several blamed for the entire development. “All I want to do is to return to the game. I will train today itself if there is no rain,” he said.
A visibly tired and emotionally exhausted Sree told newsmen that he had always played cricket in the right spirit. “I always gave my heart and soul for the game. Since the day I began to play, I have tried to give my best to cricket. This was an unexpected tragedy. Everything during these days was a big experience. let’s us hope it is over,” the Kerala paceman said.
Earlier, Sreesanth reportedly told mediapersons on board that the Delhi Police had severely tortured him mentally during the 12-day police custody after his arrest. “They tortured me mentally even without allowing me to get some sleep during nights,” a Malayalam news site reported him as saying.
Support for Sreesanth from his fans, cricketers, legal experts and political leaders in Kerala had strengthened after the Delhi Police slapped provisions of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crimes Act (MCOCA) on him. Even the Kerala Cricket Association, which had been toeing the BCCI line on the spot-fixing scandal, had termed it as unjust.