Five Cricket players suspended after campaign against Sachin Baby

On Friday, August 31, Kerala Cricket Association suspended five of its players while levying a fine on eight other players after it was learnt that they had shown dissent towards skipper Sachin Baby through a "signature campaign" while on tour to Sri Lanka in June 2018.

According to reports, India national player Sanju Samson who represented Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Daredevils in IPL, is also among the 13 players who have been punished by the Kerala Cricket Association for dissent against captain Sachin Baby. Five players who have been suspended after the enquiry are Raiphi Vincent Gomez, Sandeep S Warrier, Rohan Prem, Asif K and Mohammed Azharuddeen.

All five players will bear suspension for the first three one-dayers of the upcoming Vijay Hazare Trophy and they will also cop a fine equivalent to their match fees of three one-dayers. Three group games they will miss are; September 19 vs Chhattisgarh, September 20 vs Hyderabad and September 23 vs Odisha.

While the other eight players who have been fined are Sanju Samson, Abhishek Mohan, Akshay KC, Fabid Farook Ahmed, Nidheesh M D, Salman Nizar, Sijomon Joseph and V.A. Jagadeesh and all players have also been issued a warning that repeat of such activities in the future would draw sterner action against them.

All players are ordered to remit the penalty amount to CM Relief fund Kerala.

The association has now ordered the players to remit the penalty amount to the Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund on or before September 15 and to submit a proof of remittance.

As per reports, The 13 players had written a letter to the KCA during a recent visit by a Kerala side to Sri Lanka in June, stating that they were unhappy with Baby's leadership. However, they didn't discuss the issue with Baby or the manager on tour and instead went directly to the KCA.

In an exclusive interview to cricbuzz, Nair said, "Actually some senior players were behind this move. They planned this and juniors signed the complaint as per directions of seniors. The main allegations raised by them was the captain was arrogant to players, he took the credit when team wins and put [blame] on others when team loses... he created division in team etc,"

He further mentioned, "The state association held an individual hearing with all the accused players earlier this month (August 11) before issuing a show cause notice to get replies from the players. On Thursday (August 30), the association held another meeting before arriving at the conclusion that " it was clearly evident that the players were involved in endangering the harmony, stability and interest of the Association and also engaged in the signature campaign against the captain."

"During the preliminary enquiry, all players failed to establish the same [accusations]," Nair mentioned. KCA eventually concluded that it was a deliberate attempt to defame the captain and the board.