A former Sussex cricket star is challenging his conviction for molesting a teenage fan in 1979.

Former county batsman Uday Joshi was jailed for six years in 2012 for sexually abusing a 13-year-old Ulster boy.

An application against the conviction has been lodged with the Criminal Cases Review Commission and Mr Joshi’s lawyers have been told an investigating officer will be put on his case in the next two months.

Belfast Crown Court were told in 2012 that the 69-year-old, who played 88 times for Sussex after arriving on a trial from India in 1969, used cricket to get closer to the boy by taking him to Edgbaston and regaling him with tales of playing with England legends Tony Greig and Geoff Boycott.

Jurors, who convicted him on a majority verdict, were told that Mr Joshi twice had sexual relations with the boy in the home of the youngster’s grandmother when Mr Joshi was coaching at a cricket club.

Private Eye reported this week that Mr Joshi’s solicitors have a dossier highlighting new evidence that “undermines” the case.

Doubts were raised over the conviction because the original police file dating from a first complaint in 1998 has gone missing and the teenager’s grandmother, who may have been a key witness in the case, had died before it went to trial.

A Criminal Case Review Commission spokesman said Mr Joshi’s submission had been through an initial inquiry.

He added: “The case needs to be allocated to a case review.”

In representations sent to the review seen by The Argus, Mr Joshi’s solicitors argue his conviction highlights the prejudice that exists in respect of child sexual abuse which creates difficulties for preserving the right to a fair trial .

The legal papers state that: “[Mr Joshi] had over the years been involved with young people and no allegations of any impropriety on his part has ever been made from anywhere in the world.

“However, he finds himself convicted of serious sexual offences against one individual, whose evidence before the jury was inconsistent, unreliable and where he fabricated his evidence, admitting to telling lies.”