The Madras High Court has sentenced IPS officer G Sampath Kumar to 15 days of imprisonment after the contempt of court petition filed by former Team India and current Chennai Super Kings (CSK) captain MS Dhoni. In his plea, Dhoni had claimed that Sampath made defamatory remarks in his written submissions in relation to the IPL 2013 spot fixing scandal in the aftermath of which Dhoni-led franchise faced a two-year suspension.
It is pertinent to note that Samapth was the police official who investigated the case. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) faced a massive setback during IPL 2013 as two former champion teams- CSK and Rajasthan Royals (RR) were involved in the spot-fixing controversy. CSK's principal owner Gurunath Meiyappan was one of the accused but it would be fair to say that RR were hit harder as their players Ankeet Chavan, Ajit Chandila and S Sreesanth were even banned for their roles in spot-fixing.
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In the two years that CSK were banned, Dhoni plied his trade for the Rising Pune Supergiants (RPG) before being back at the helm of affairs at CSK when the team returned ot the IPL. The wicketkeeper-batter has recalled that phase as the toughest one of his career during which the team was banned and some even questioned Dhoni's involvement in the entire scandal.
"2013 was the most difficult phase in my life, I was never depressed as much as I was then. The closest was the 2007 World Cup when we lost in the group stages. But all said and done, 2007 happened because we did not play good cricket," Dhoni said in an episode of the Docudrama titled 'Roar of the Lion.'
"But 2013, the angle was completely different. People were talking about match-fixing and spot-fixing. It was the most talked about thing in the country," he added.