Maharashtra kabaddi body revokes match fixing bans

Raju Bhavsar

The Maharashtra State Kabaddi Association (MSKA) on Monday revoked the five-year bans on state women's team coach Raju Bhavsar and 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games gold medal-winner Deepika Joseph. It also revoked the two-year bans on Maharashtra captain Sailee Keripale, her teammate Snehal Shinde and team manager Manisha Gavand.

On August 28 last year, the MSKA's disciplinary committee, chaired by its vice-president Devram Bhoir, had recommended bans post match fixing allegations as the Maharashtra women's team lost to Kerala and were ousted in the league stage of the National championships held in Patna earlier in the year. Maharashtra have an impressive record at the kabaddi Nationals where its women's team have emerged champions 22 times. The bans were revoked on Monday following a virtual meeting of MSKA officials. "Our managing committee had an online meeting where it was unanimously decided that the bans be revoked taking into consideration the future prospects of these players. Since a year's ban has already been served, we felt that was enough," MSKA secretary Aswad Patil told mid-day from Alibag on Tuesday.

Recalling the match in question, Bhavsar said: "The strategy of that particular match against Kerala was decided with the consent of [MSKA] authorities but it eventually failed because of some misinformation. However, now [with the bans revoked] justice has been done."

Interestingly, despite the MSKA ban, both Joseph and Shinde were selected in the Indian women's team for the South Asian Games held in Kathmandu, Nepal in December last year, where Team India emerged champions.

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