Sreesanth reveals why he tucked in a towel while bowling in IPL 2013

What's the story?

Tainted Indian pacer S Sreesanth who is currently fighting to make a comeback to cricket opens up about the fateful night which led to his suspension from international cricket.

According to the pacer, the reason for him putting a towel into his trousers while bowling was because he idolised former South African pacer Alan Donald who did the same.

"They said Jiju (Janardhan) apparently said I would either keep an armband or towel or vermilion or something like that. I used to do all that because I love Allan Donald,” he told Wisden India.

“I have done that before too. I would even wear plenty of zinc oxide on my face, like Donald. Does that mean those matches were fixed too? Is it a crime to be superstitious? I believed that wearing those things would help me when I was going through a bad phase in my bowling. In fact, in the first over I asked Kumar Dharmasena (the umpire) if it was okay if I kept a towel. Surely, the stump microphones picked that up. I did that only because it made me feel like Donald,” he added.

In case you didn't know...

Sreesanth was banned for life after his alleged involvement in the IPL spot-fixing scandal which occurred in 2013. Apparently, he was really close to a bookmaker named Janardhan who promised him a sum of money to concede a minimum number of runs in a particular number of overs in a couple of matches in the IPL.

The details:

Sreesanth also went on to claim that Rs. 10 lakh was too small an amount and if he were actually to indulge in match-fixing, he would have done it to the extent of Rs. 10 crore instead.

After being out of the game for four years, Sreesanth is currently on the comeback trail with the help of the Kerala High Court.

He is seeking a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the BCCI to play a domestic league in Scotland.

What's next?

Sreesanth revealed that his dream is to represent India in the 2019 World Cup.

Author's take:

The 34 year old has been pleading his innocence since the incident in 2013 but this revelation is something new and adds another chapter to the story.

However, we really can't say whether what he is saying is true or not as there is no proper evidence of what happened four years ago.

If he does get back to playing cricket, it will take him a really long time to get back into his groove given the fact that he has remained completely out of touch.