The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Tuesday announced a six-month suspension on Maharashtra Cricket Association's (MCA) pitch curator Pandurang Salgaonkar, following its investigations over alleged charges of corruption made by a news channel in October last year.
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 in a statement: "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 Salgaonkar has no case to answer on the broad allegations of corruption made by the channel. 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 added.
"Salgaonkar has accepted that he has committed the offence and has received a six-month suspension, which has been backdated to October 25, 2017, being the date he was internally suspended by the MCA, and he will, therefore, be free to resume his duties on April 24, 2018," Marshall continued.
Salgaoncar was suspended by the MCA after being caught in a sting operation, agreeing to tamper with the pitch on the approach of an undercover reporter, posing as a bookie, hours before the India-New Zealand fixture was to take place at the MCA Stadium in Pune on October 25 last year.
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