ICC Suspends Pune Curator Pandurang Salgaonkar For Breaching Anti-Corruption Code

The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Tuesday announced a six-month suspension on Maharashtra Cricket Association's pitch curator Pandurang Salgaonkar following its investigations over alleged charges of corruption made by India Today in October 2017. Salgaonkar was charged with a failure to report an approach but no evidence was found of him actually having been engaged in corruption and therefore no charges were laid against him on that basis. ICC General Manager, Anti-Corruption, Alex Marshall said, "We have carried out an extensive investigation based on the allegations made by India Today and the material they shared with us."

"I am satisfied that Mr. Salgaonkar has no case to answer on the broad allegations of corruption made by India Today. However, as he is bound by the ICC Anti-Corruption Code as a participant of the sport, he has been charged with breaching section 2.4.4 of the Code for his failure to report an approach to engage in corrupt conduct", he said.

"Mr Salgaonkar has accepted that he has committed the offence and has received a six-month suspension, which has been backdated to 25 October 2017, being the date he was internally suspended by MCA, and he will, therefore, be free to resume his duties on 24 April 2018", he added.

Salgaoncar, the pitch manager at the Pune ground, was allegedly exposed during an undercover sting that claimed he doctored the surface ahead of the Wednesday's match. ICC officials cleared the match to start on schedule after India's cricket board banned Salgaoncar from the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) ground.