Jadeja can play

India one-day specialist Ajay Jadeja, banned for five years for his alleged involvement in match-fixing, was Wednesday allowed to play cricket by the Delhi High Court.

The court passed an interim order allowing for play on an appeal filed by Jadeja after the Indian cricket board had contested an arbitrator's award in the cricketer's favour.

The board has been given until July 21 to file its reply.

Jadeja, 32, had challenged the ban imposed on him by the board following the match-fixing charges.

He was suspended from official cricket in December 2000 after being named in a match-fixing investigation by federal investigators.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said in a report that Jadeja hobnobbed with alleged bookmakers and cited telephone records linking him with them.

But the arbitrator appointed by the High Court overturned the ban early this year, saying the probe was one-sided and Jadeja was not given a chance to prove his innocence.

Jadeja, a stylish middle-order batsman, scored 5,359 runs with six centuries and 30 half-centuries in 196 one-dayers.

He also figured in 15 Tests, scoring 576 runs.

His last international engagement was the Asia Cup match against Pakistan in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka in June 2000.

Following the CBI probe, former captain Mohammad Azharuddin and Test player Ajay Sharma were banned for life, while Jadeja and Manoj Prabhakar received five-year suspensions.

All four denied any wrongdoing and Jadeja and Azharuddin went to court to appeal the punishment.