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Dubai: Umpire Amish Saheba, who allegedly accused Shantakumaran Sreesanth of provoking Harbhajan Singh in a newspaper interview, has denied speaking to any reporter.
Niranjan Shah, the secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), said: "Saheba has categorically denied giving any kind of interview on the matter."
Explanation
Saheba was suspended by the BCCI for two IPL matches following his alleged comments to the Mumbai Mirror newspaper. He was also issued a show cause notice asking him to explain the matter.
Responding to the show cause notice, Saheba said: "As far as the subject of the publication in the Mumbai Mirror is concerned, I may state that no person has spoken to me in person, or taken any interview. There were no questions put to me, whereby I was asked to give answers as reported in the said daily."
The umpire said that a reporter of the Ahmedabad Mirror visited his home on April 28, a day before his "comments" appeared in the newspaper and its Mumbai counterpart, to take a photograph of him.
"I was not given to understand that he wanted my photograph for the report which ultimately came to be published in the Ahmedabad Mirror as well as the Mumbai Mirror.
"I never knew this was the purpose of him taking the photographs. There was no such type of conversation or communication."
Saheba is alleged to have said that Sreesanth had been sledging the Mumbai batsmen throughout the game, which ended in his confrontation with Harbhajan.
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