IPL spot fixing case: Sreesanth's life comes full circle after court drops charges against him, Chavan & Chandila

I'm a survivor
I'm not gonna give up
I'm not gonna stop
I'm gonna work harder
—Survivor, Destiny's Child (2001)

If Shanthakumaran Sreesanth isn't destiny's child, then who is?

Fast bowler, break dancer, showman, patriot, son, husband, father… Sreesanth is all that and more. Twenty-six months after the Delhi Police found something wrong with his "towel tactics", the man with the beautiful outswinger got a new lease of life from a trail court, which dropped all charges against the 32-year-old and his former Rajasthan Royals teammates Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila.

That, however, did not stop the BCCI from proclaiming that it was not going to overturn the life ban imposed on the players.

"Any disciplinary proceeding or decision taken by the BCCI is independent to any criminal proceeding and has no bearing. The decisions of the BCCI, based on its independent disciplinary action, shall remain unaltered," the board said.

Senior counsel Rebecca John, who represented Sreesanth, expressed delight at the trial court's order but slammed the BCCI for its statement that smacked of vindictiveness.

"To be honest, I am not surprised by the court's verdict. All along, the prosecution's case was sketchy and devoid of any corroborative evidence. All in all, it was a big stretch," John told dna. The high-profile lawyer added, "I am, however, surprised by the BCCI's reaction. They could have said they needed time to go through the order. I know Sreesanth's life revolves around cricket. He wants to play the game again. And now that the criminal charges are out of the way, we will challenge the ban."

Sreesanth's life seems to have come full circle. If his emergence from the cricketing backwater that is Kerala wasn't inspiring enough, then Sreesanth overawed one and all with his divine seam position. At every given juncture in his career, Sree was in the right place at the right time: MoM in India's first-ever Test victory on South African soil in 2006-07, Misbah-ul-Haq's catch in the final of the inaugural WorldT20, Jacques Kallis's scalp in 2010-11, Praveen Kumar's replacement at the 2011 World Cup.

Married to a rajkumari from Rajasthan and blessed with a baby girl last week, Sreesanth is ready to turn a new leaf. The fairytale will be incomplete till he wears the India blue or white again. And he is determined to make it happen.

Several questions remain unanswered, though. Was Sree a victim of the Delhi Police's whims and fancies? After all, it's widely believed that his arrest was a "face-saving retirement gift" for Neeraj Kumar, then the Capital's police commissioner and now head of the BCCI's Anti-Corruption Unit. Kumar had drawn a lot of flak for his force's inability to make New Delhi safer for women.

John refused to comment on the speculation but agreed that the prosecution had erred on several fronts. Hence the verdict.

The BCCI has conveniently taken refuge in the fact that Sreesanth and the others defrauded them. That the BCCI governs cricket in India is enough for it be "comfortably satisfied" with the allegations made by the cops two years ago. A favourable verdict hasn't helped Sreesanth with the board, but it eventually will. N Srinivasan, Arun Jaitley and Jyotiraditya Scindia comprised the disciplinary committee that banned Sreesanth for life. One of these gentlemen is the finance minister of the country. Another is out of the board for reasons well known. Something is amiss somewhere.

Sreesanth wouldn't be breaking his head over all this. Not immediately. He's just taken, what he believes, a step back to normalcy. Ah, destiny's child.