HYDERABAD, JAN 29: Former cricket captain Mohammed Azharuddin today filed a petition in a city civil court here, challenging the life-ban imposed on him by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for alleged involvement in the match-fixing scandal.Azhar also challenged the appointment of K Madhavan as the anti-corruption commissioner on the ground that it was not permissible under the BCCI rules.Making the BCCI, its chairman A C Muthaiah and Madhavan, respondents in the case, the tainted Hyderabadi batsman, in his petition, alleged that the probe into the match-fixing scandal was not ``transparent, free and fair'', his advocate T Jagdish said.Azhar, who along with Ajay Sharma was banned for life, contended that the CBI report on match-fixing cannot be taken as a ``gospel truth''.In his 14-page petition, he also contended that ``witnesses were not examined by the CBI'' and sought summoning of the members of the Cricket Board Disciplinary Committee to the court.Based on the findings of the CBI into the worst scandal in the game's history and subsequent corroboration by anti-corruption commissioner, the BCCI Disciplinary Committee had on December 5 last announced life-ban on Azhar and Ajay Sharma, while suspending Ajay Jadeja and Manoj Prabhakar for five years.Azhar also maintained in the petition that he had told both the CBI and Madhavan that he was ``innocent''.
