Sreesanth

Calcutta: Eyebrows continue to be raised over Sreesanth being fit enough to scorch the dance floor in Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena, yet being unfit for national duty.

The 25-year-old Kochi-based speedster has, however, clarified that the episodes (which began being telecast last week) were shot in May, before a strain on the left side kept him away from cricket.

The most recent injury, one learns, concerns the lower back. When? How? Nobody has a clue.

As for the clarification, Sreesanth gave it in Bangalore some 10 days ago when the Board’s chief administrative officer, Ratnakar Shetty, asked what many have been asking.

“We’ve gone by what he said when I wanted to know how come he’s fit to dance, but not fit enough to represent the country… I didn’t double check with the producers of the show, though,” Shetty told The Telegraph on Friday.

The Shetty-Sreesanth interaction took place at the National Cricket Academy.

Gifted and controversial, Sreesanth hasn’t played for Team India after the last Test at home (Kanpur), against South Africa, in April.

Since the side-strain injury, which occurred after the cash-oozing Indian Premier League, Sreesanth has missed the tri-series in Bangladesh (for which he’d been picked), the Asia Cup in Pakistan and the full tour of Sri Lanka, involving Tests and ODIs.

He won’t be seen in action in the first two Tests versus Australia too. After that, well, it’s anybody’s guess.

Intriguingly, when Sreesanth was taken out of the Bangladesh-bound squad, on June 7, the Board had announced he would recover in “two weeks.”

Months have passed.

Sreesanth, who made his India debut in the early days of the Greg Chappell era, turned out for semi-finalists Kings XI Punjab in the League --- the tournament where Mumbai Indians’ Harbhajan Singh slapped him, in Mohali.

Both, however, feature in the Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena show.

Separately, of course.

Shetty, meanwhile, has been given an extended contract (six years instead of five) by the Board and, so, he’ll be resigning as a Wilson College professor of chemistry.

“I’d taken two years leave (from September 2006), when I got this appointment, but I’ll now end my innings as a professor,” he said.

Shetty, considered quite close to Sharad Pawar, is also the Mumbai Cricket Association treasurer. Pawar’s term as the Board president is over, but he’s still the Mumbai supremo.