Former Board of Control for Cricket in India president A C Muthiah has justified the five-year ban on Ajay Jadeja for his alleged involvement in the match-fixing scandal.
"At that time we went through proper procedure and as per that we took action. We think the action taken then was fair," Muthiah, who was a member of the BCCI disciplinary committee which slapped the ban on Jadeja, told reporters in Kolkata on Tuesday.
He said the BCCI should now look into the legality of the order of the arbitrator who quashed the ban.
The Delhi high court-appointed arbitrator quashed the disciplinary committee's decision on January 27 on a petition filed by Jadeja, seeking withdrawal of the ban imposed on him in December 2000.
"I am sure the BCCI will make proper consultation and take proper action now," he said.
Muthiah, however, added, "I hope whatever is done now is in a proper frame of mind and in a proper manner and they [BCCI] will not show any favouritism."
The BCCI has already said it is seeking legal opinion on the arbitrator's decision and would also take the opinion of Muthiah and other members of the then disciplinary committee, including former CBI director K Madhavan, on whose report the ban was imposed.
Asked to comment on the ongoing player contracts' controversy, Muthiah said, "I don't want to comment on that as I am not a member of the board now."
But he denied that the controversial contract was signed during his tenure as president.
"I did not sign this contract. I only signed that India would send its best team for ICC tournaments.
"Moreover, my stand has already been cleared by ICC. Only the Participating Nations Agreement (PNA) was signed by the BCCI when I was its president," Muthiah said.
