Mumbai Cricket Association bans Shetty for five years

Senior BCCI official Prof Ratnakar Shetty was on Tuesday banned for five years by the Mumbai Cricket Association for alleging that some MCA office bearers could have sold tickets for an India-Pakistan T20 International at Ahmedabad last year in the black market.

"Yes. He has been banned for five years from representing any club under MCA's jurisdiction. It does not prevent him from coming to MCA's premises," MCA president Ravi Savant said.

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"We have not prevented him from earning his bread and butter," added Savant.

The ban is effective till June 2, 2018 and Shetty is set to challenge it in a court of law, it is learnt.

Shetty is the BCCI's General Manager, Game Development, and the Board's office is in the same building as the MCA at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

Savant further said that the ban has been imposed for his allegations against some MCA office bearers, regarding a December 22 T20 match, which have been found untrue after the association conducted an inquiry.

The decision to ban Shetty, who has been associated with the MCA for several years and served it in the capacity of committee member, secretary, treasurer and vice president, was taken on May 14 by the managing committee.

The committee also gave Shetty additional time to listen to the video recording of the meeting and his allegations and then revert to the MCA, which he did a few days ago.

The letter informing the imposition of the ban was delivered to him on Tuesday, according to sources.

Photograph: Ritam Banerjee/Getty Images