Jadeja can play, says Delhi High Court

The cunning drama of Ajay Jadeja continues to flip-flop, as the Delhi High Court gave a ruling today that stated that Jadeja should be allowed to play domestic cricket. Just two days ago, a single-judge bench had turned down his plea; this bench comprised of two judges.

The division bench, comprising of Justice BA Khan and Justice OP Diwedi, passed an ex-parte interim order tilting the scales towards Jadeja. It also issued a notice to the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) seeking a reply from them by July 21.

This entire drama can be said to have begun when India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said in a report that Jadeja hobnobbed with alleged bookmakers and cited telephone records linking him with them. The BCCI carried out its own internal investigations based on this report, and banned Jadeja for five years based on their findings.

Jadeja denied any wrongdoing, however, and the matter landed up with an arbitrator appointed by the Delhi High Court. The arbitrator duly overturned the ban last year, saying that the BCCI's probe was one-sided, and that Jadeja was not given a chance to present his case. The BCCI was given a timeframe within which to reply to the arbitrator's ruling, and they duly did.

All of this matters little in cricketing terms. Jadeja is now 32 and his international career is unlikely to resume, and he has already found easy rehabilitation in India, where his rakish good looks have made him a celebrity. He has dabbled in acting and started a restaurant, and is married to Aditi Jaitley, daughter of Jaya Jaitley, a prominent politician in Delhi. His legal battles began when he was at a low point in his life - he is on an upswing now.