Siddharth Trivedi

Life was smooth for Siddharth Trivedi until the fag end of IPL-6. When the IPL spot-fixing scandal broke out, Trivedi was found guilty of not reporting bookie approaches and the BCCI slapped him with a one-year ban from all forms of cricket. However, it was made clear that Trivedi was not involved in any illegal activities.

This came as big blow to the Ahmedabad-born right-arm medium-pacer as he could not play any form of competitive cricket. In fact Trivedi was one of the star performers for Rajasthan Royals since the inception of the IPL. Shane Warne was impressed by his efforts in the inaugural edition of the IPL in 2008 and he praised him a lot as he provided many crucial breakthroughs to help the Royals clinch the title.

Trivedi was impressive in his younger days as well. From representing India at the Under-19 World Cup to earning the Border-Gavaskar scholarship to train in Australia, Trivedi was moving in the right direction and was seen as a promising talent who could represent the country.

He made his first-class debut during the 2002-03 season for Saurashtra and was a regular part of their setup since then. He represents Gujarat in the local Twenty20 competitions and was eventually signed by the Royals in 2008, who retained him every season until 2013. Understandably, he is the highest wicket-taker for the Royals in their IPL history.

Despite expressing his disappointment at missing out on professional cricket, Trivedi sounded positive and added that he will return stronger once the ban is lifted. It is unfortunate that a national breakthrough is still a distant dream for Trivedi, despite having a good run in the domestic circuit.