Relief for Azharuddin as court strikes down ban

Twelve years after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) imposed a ban for life-time on former India captain Mohammed Azharuddin, the Andhra Pradesh High Court Thursday struck it down as "illegal".

In a major relief to the cricketer-turned-politician, a division bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court set aside the order of a lower court which had upheld the ban.

It was on Dec 5, 2000, that the BCCI banned Azhar from playing professional cricket for the rest of his life after he was found guilty of match-fixing charges.

The Hyderabadi had challenged the Indian cricket board's decision in the city civil court, which upheld the ban. He then moved to high court against the lower court's order, his lawyers arguing that BCCI imposed the ban without any evidence.

The 49-year-old is currently a member of the Lok Sabha from the Moradabad constituency in Uttar Pradesh.

The court verdict has come as a major relief to Azhar, who had always maintained that the ban on him was unfair and the BCCI's decision was unilateral. The BCCI then had banned Azhar and Ajay Sharma for life and imposed a five-year ban on Ajay Jadeja and Manoj Prabhakar.

The BCCI move came after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which probed the match-fixing scandal, accused these players of having links with bookies and of under-performing in return for huge sums of money.

The match-fixing scandal came to light after then South Africa captain Hansie Cronje, in his confession, claimed that Azhar had introduced him to the bookies.

Azhar, one of India's most successful captains nd prolific batsmen, played 99 Tests and scored 6,215 runs during his career. He also played 334 One-Day Internationals scoring 9,378 runs in his 15-year international career.

The wristy batsman had taken the world of cricket by storm in 1984-85 with a world record of three consecutive centuries in three Tests on his debut against England.

He entered politics a few months before 2009 elections by joining the Congress party and was elected to the Lok Sabha.

No prime ministerial ambitions: Advani

 On his 85th birthday, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani Thursday brushed away suggestions of his wanting to be the party's prime ministerial candidate.

"The party and the country have given me so much, it is much more than becoming the prime minister," Advani told reporters.

Advani is known to nurse prime ministerial ambitions and during the 2009 general elections he had gone on a countrywide rath yatra to connect with people.

Among those who went to greet Advani were party chief Nitin Gadkari, who is under attack for alleged financial impropriety in the funding of his Purti Group.

Advani had not gone for the BJP core group meeting on Tuesday to decide on the future of Gadkari in the wake of allegations against him. The party has reposed faith in Gadkari's leadership and said he has done "no legal or moral wrong".

However, Advani supported Gadkari in a blog last month, where he congratulated the BJP chief on saying he was open to a probe.

BJP will take call on Modi at appropriate time: Kalyan Singh

 Admitting that many people want to seeGujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as India's next prime minister, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would take a call on this at the appropriate time. He said he would return to the party soon after having gone separate ways.

"The decision on Modi will be taken by the BJP and the NDA at an appropriate time, but I can say he is a very tall leader with no graft taint on him," said Kalyan Singh, who was chief minister when the Babri Masjid was razed in 1992 and who is all set to return to the BJP after a bitter parting.

He also predicted a clean sweep for Modi in the Gujarat assembly polls in December with an improved tally from the 117 seats in the 182-member house.

"Modi is the Vikas Purush of Gujarat who has put in place a transparent system and has no taint on him," Kalyan Singh told IANS in an interview.

Asked to comment on the controversies surrounding BJP chief Nitin Gadkari, Kalyan Singh said that rather than being slammed, he should be lauded for the courage he has shown in calling for "any form of probe by any agency. Has (Congress chief) Sonia Gandhi shown similar courage in the case involving (her son-in-law) Robert Vadra?"

"Though I do not know the technicalities of the allegations against Gadkari-ji, I am sure that if he has denied wrongdoing, there is no reason to suspect him," the 80-year-old leader said.

Asked to comment on his re-entry into the saffron fold despite a "bad experience" in the past, Kalyan said "waqt" (time) was the primary reason that brought them together.

"Both the BJP and I have understood that we are made for each other and that there is no point travelling separate paths when the destination is the same," he said while pointing out that he had been bred in the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) tradition and had nationalism and patriotism in his blood.

Have the factors that twice led to his separation from the BJP changed?

"I am sure they have. We already have had three rounds of serious discussion and the grey areas have been attended to. I am sure if we work unitedly and to liberate the people of this country from the clutches of a corrupt government, the BJP stood a clear chance (at the 2014 general elections)," Kalyan Singh maintained.

As for the timing of his re-entry, he said: "The national leadership was very busy with the Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat polls, I will meet Gadkari-ji very soon and a date will be fixed thereafter." The comeback, would be a glittering event, attended by national and state party leadership, preferably in Lucknow, when he and his son Rajveer would join the BJP and his Rashtriya Kranti Party (RKP) would merge with the party.

For a man held responsible for the razing of the Babri mosque by frenzied mobs of Kar Sevaks even as he refused to sign orders for the police to open fire, the construction of a Ram temple, Kalyan Singh admitted, still remained close to his heart.

"Ram Mandir is an emotional issue for me. I have a long association with the movement and I am hopeful that before I breathe my last, I will see a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya" he said.

Claiming that he had once helped the BJP win 6o Lok Sabha seats in undivided Uttar Pradesh, Kalyan Singh said the feat can be repeated if the party selects the right candidates in 2014.

"As of now I am a wellwisher of the party but outside as of now. Once I am in, we will together work on an action plan and revive the party in the state," he said.