Former IPS officer sentenced on Dhoni’s petition; Madras High Court sentenced him to 15 days in jail; Was accused of IPL match fixing

Madras High Court on Friday sentenced retired IPS officer G Sampat Kumar to 15 days imprisonment on the petition of former Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. However, the punishment has been postponed for 30 days. So that he can appeal against the decision.

The case is related to IPL match fixing that happened during 2013
In 2013, G Sampath Kumar was a CID officer of Tamil Nadu Police. He led the initial investigation into the 2013 IPL betting case. He was accused of taking bribes to release the bookies. Therefore he was removed from the case.

Sampath had also included Dhoni’s name in this case. On this, Dhoni had filed a defamation case of Rs 100 crore against G Sampat Kumar and a television channel group. Dhoni had also filed a contempt petition against Sampath. In this petition, reference was made to the derogatory comments made by Sampath against the Supreme Court and Madras High Court.

IPS officer Sampat had commented on the Supreme Court
Sampath Kumar reportedly claimed that the Supreme Court decided to keep parts of the Justice Mudgal Committee report on match-fixing in the 2013 IPL under sealed cover and not hand it over to the Special Investigation Team.

India won three ICC trophies under Dhoni’s captaincy
Under Dhoni’s captaincy, India has won the 2007 T20 World Cup, 2011 World Cup, 2013 Champions Trophy. Dhoni is the only captain to do this. Under the captaincy of Dhoni, CSK has made a record of winning 5 IPL trophies. Along with him, Rohit Sharma also has this record in his name. Mumbai Indians have also won five trophies under the captaincy of Rohit. Apart from this, Dhoni holds the record of scoring the most runs (183 not out) in an ODI match as a wicketkeeper.

Dhoni’s number-7 jersey retired, second Indian cricketer to receive this honor
Dhoni’s number-7 jersey will no longer be available to any other Indian cricketer. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has decided to retire it. The board took this decision about 3 years after Dhoni’s international retirement. Indian Express report gave this information quoting BCCI.

Before Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar’s number-10 jersey had also received this honour. In the year 2017, Sachin’s number-10 jersey was also retired forever.

Dhoni retired from international cricket on 15 August 2020. He had retired from Test in 2014 itself. According to the report, a BCCI official said that Team India players, especially the debutants, have been told that they cannot choose the numbers associated with Tendulkar and Dhoni.

Played 90 Tests, 350 ODIs and 98 T20s
Dhoni has played 90 Tests, 350 ODIs and 98 T20s. In these, he has scored 4,876 Test, 10,773 ODI and 1,617 T-20 runs. Dhoni has scored 4,432 runs in 190 matches so far in IPL. Under his captaincy, CSK has won the IPL title five times. Under his captaincy the team also won the IPL in 2023.