The Kerala Cricket Association on Friday announced that former India pacer S Sreesanth has been suspended from all cricket activity related in the state for making “false and defamatory statements” against the association in the controversy surrounding Sanju Samson’s exclusion from India’s Champions Trophy squad earlier this year.
The KCA announced that the decision to suspend former pacer Sreesanth, currently the co-owner of the Kollam Sailors franchise in the Kerala Cricket League, was taken at a special KCA general body meeting on Friday.
“Following the controversial remarks, the KCA had issued show-cause notices to Sreesanth and the franchisee teams Kollam Aries, Alleppey Team Lead content creator Sai Krishnan, and Alleppey Ripples. As the franchisee teams gave satisfactory replies to the notice, the meeting decided not to proceed with further action against them. However, the KCA instructed the team management to be vigilant when including members in the team management,” a statement from KCA read.
The KCA also stated that a defamation suit will be pressed against Sanju’s father, Samson Viswanath, Reji Lukose and the TwentyFour news channel anchor for making “baseless allegations against the association in Sanju’s name.”
What is the KCA-Samson-Sreesanth controversy?
In February 2025, the the KCA in its decision to snub Sanju from the Vijay Hazare Trophy squad in December 2024. The wicketkeeper-batter was reportedly then omitted from India’s ICC Champions Trophy 2025 squad for not playing the 50-over domestic tournament.
KCA said its show cause notice was not for Sreesanth showing support to Samson, but for “making false and defamatory statements” which was a violation of his contractual terms as the co-owner of the Kollam Sailors franchise.
In its response to Sreesanth’s comments, KCA brought up the infamous 2013 spot-fixing case against Sreesanth to say that it always supported players, even if they were in jail, which was a dig at the former India pacer.
“When Sreesanth was in jail facing allegations in the infamous match-fixing scandal, KCA officials visited and supported him. Although the court quashed the criminal case, it is a fact that he has not been acquitted in the match-fixing case. In such a situation, there is no need for Sreesanth to take up the protection of other players,” the statement read.
Sreesanth’s response
Sreesanth had asked which international player KCA had managed to produce after Samson. At this, KCA slammed Sreesanth’s “ignorance about Kerala cricket” before listing out names of players: “Sajana Sajeevan, Minnumani, Asha Shobana, and junior players like Joshitha V.J. in the Under-19 World Cup winning team, Najla CMC in the Under-19 team, and Mohammed Enaan in the Under-19 Asia Cup team.”
However, Sreesanth did not back down after the show-cause notice, instead lambasting KCA in an interview with Kerala media outlet Onmanorama where he questioned why KCA has been overlooking local players. “They (KCA) take players from other states to play for us. For what? Disrespectful to our Malayali cricketers,” he said.
“We have just one player at international level, Sanju. Let’s all support him,” Sreesanth said. “The so-called KCA has not produced an international cricketer since Sanju. We have great players like Sachin, Nidheesh, Vishnu Vinod, and many others, but are they (KCA) pushing them to play at higher?” he questioned.
Kerala eventually proceeded to qualify for their first-ever Ranji Trophy final in the 2024-25, finishing runners-up behind Vidarbha in an injured Samson’s absence.
Earlier, explaining why Samson was ignored for the VHT tournament, KCA secretary Vinod S Kumar had told : “Sanju had sent an email stating that he would not be available for the camp. The team had a short camp in Wayanad without him. Naturally, we only considered those who were part of the sessions for selection. There has been no further discussion with him on the matter.”
