'I will make a comeback and I have started training for that'

Despite the BCCI imposing him a life ban on spot-fixing charges in the IPL, Indian Test pacer S Sreesanth has said he still hopes to play for the country. 

Asked about the life ban handed on him by the BCCI, Sreesanth said he was confident of making a comeback. 

"I will make a comeback and I have started training for that," he told a Malayalam television channel. 

Earlier in the day, the BCCI cracked the whip on corrupt players and slapped life bans on Sreesanth and spinner Ankeet Chavan for their involvement in the IPL spot-fixing scam while handing out lesser punishments to some others in the scandal which rocked the Twenty20 league this year. 

Amit Singh, a former Rajasthan Royals player, was handed a five-year ban while another RR cricketer Siddharth Trivedi got away with a lighter one-year suspension after the BCCI disciplinary committee met in New Delhi to discuss anti-corruption chief Ravi Sawani's report on the scam.

After appearing before the committee in New Delhi earlier in the day, Sreesanth had said that he would come out clean. "All the disciplinary committee members were very cooperative and it went off well.

"I gave them my side of the story. All I have dreamt from childhood is to play for India and I will never cheat the game," Sreesanth said. 

"I have full faith in the judiciary as well as the BCCI and I will come clean on this whole issue," added the 30-year-old former Test pacer, who was accompanied by a friend, Manoj. 

The deposition of the players came even as Sawani's report was discussed by the BCCI committee, headed by BCCI President N Srinivasan and comprising Board vice-Presidents Arun Jaitley and Niranjan Shah.