cricket

Updated: Feb 12, 2016 15:23 IST

The Disciplinary Committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Friday, after a meeting in Mumbai, banned controversial Pakistan umpire Asad Rauf for five years from any form of cricket that falls under purview of the Indian Board.

Rauf was sought after by the Crime branch in connection with the spot-fixing scandal that rocked the Indian Premier League in 2013. Rauf, who left India after he came under the radar of the investigating officers, was not present at the hearing, but had sent his preliminary submissions on January 15 and a written statement early this week.

In 2013, a gift hamper containing gold ornaments and electronic appliances allegedly addressed to Rauf was found unclaimed at the air cargo section of Delhi airport. Himanshu Roy, joint commissioner of police (Crime), then was quoted as saying those gifts were sent to Rauf by a bookie.

Rauf was earlier dropped by the International Cricket Council from officiating at the ICC Champions Trophy.

The BCCI Committee found Rauf guilty of misconduct and corruption under multiple statutes of its BCCI Anti-Corruption Code.

The BCCI statutes Rauf had broken:

Article 2.2.2: Soliciting, inducing, enticing, instructing, persuading, encouraging, facilitating or authorising any other party to enter into a Bet for the direct or indirect benefit of the Participant in relation to the result, progress, conduct or any other aspect of any Match or Event.

Article 2.3.2 Disclosing Inside Information to any person (with or without Reward) before or during any Match or Event where the Participant might reasonably be expected to know that disclosure of such information in such circumstances could be used in relation to Betting.

2.3.3 Soliciting, inducing, enticing, persuading, encouraging or facilitating (a) any Participant to commit an offence under any of the foregoing provisions of this Article 2.3 and/or (b) any other person to do any act that would be an offence if that person were a Participant.

2.4.1 Providing or receiving any gift, payment or other benefit (whether of a monetary value or otherwise) in circumstances that the Participant might reasonably have expected could bring him/her or the sport of cricket into disrepute.

Read:

How the IPL spot-betting saga unfolded: A brief timeline

Rauf’s lawyer dismisses ‘vague’ allegations