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Indian match-fixing inquiry names 6 former skippers

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November 2, 2000 

NEW DELHI (AP) - Based on testimony from Indian bookmakers, former cricket captains of six countries were named in an Indian government match-fixing report released Wednesday that alleged top players across the world had routine contacts with bookmakers.

The report has listed the names of five Indian and nine foreign players who were either offered or paid money to underperform or provide information on matches, but the accusations have been made in the testimony given by Mukesh K. Gupta, an Indian bookmaker.

Sport Minister Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, who released the 162-page report prepared by India's investigative agency, said the government would seek the advice of legal experts before acting on the findings of the report.

"The report has been referred to the law ministry and I will go by the advice given by legal experts before proceeding with any action," Dhindsa told a crowded press conference.

Former England captain Alec Stewart, former West Indies captain Brian Lara, former South African captain Hansie Cronje, former New Zealand captain Martin Crowe and former Sri Lanka captain Arjuna Ranatunga, Australian batsmen Mark Waugh and Dean Jones, Pakistan's Salim Malik, and Sri Lanka's star batsman Arvinda D'Silva, were bunched in one paragraph which said they had accepted, or been offered, bribes by Gupta.

Gupta and two other Indian bookmakers and some Indian players are the main sources for the allegations in the report, which contains an alleged confession by former Indian captain Mohammed Azharuddin that he fixed cricket matches with the help of teammates Ajay Jadeja and Nayan Mongia for large sums of money.

The report says former Indian cricketer Ajay Sharma received hundreds of thousands of rupees (tens of thousands of dollars) for introducing Azharuddin and the others to Gupta.

"My conscience is clear...I am not involved in matchfixing," Mongia, former Indian wicketkeeper, told reporters on Wednesday during a cricket match in Bombay.

Jadeja too has denied the allegations.

"I am innocent," Jadeja was quoted as saying. "If any charge is proven against me, I will respect the law as I am a law-abiding citizen."

The government probe, begun in April after police monitored mobile phone conversations Cronje held with bookies during South Africa's Indian tour, included tax department raids of the homes of top cricketers and cricketing officials.

The report, by the Central Bureau of Investigation, India's FBI, paints a broad picture of easy access by bookmakers to the stars of what is known as "the gentleman's game."

The report said that small-scale betting on cricket matches had taken place in India for many years, but it became big business, with bookmakers making huge profits, after India won the World Cup in 1983. Live television broadcasts of the matches boosted the betting further, the report said, with the bookies making profitable use of computers and mobile telephones.

On Tuesday, Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee ordered the sports minister to make the report public, saying people had a right to know the truth about the fraud that has shaken the cricketing world and its millions of followers.

Dhindsa refused to reply when questioned about the possibility of prosecuting foreign players, saying he would comment only after the legal aspects of the case had been examined.

It was not clear whether match-fixing can be prosecuted under Indian laws, but New Delhi police have charged Cronje and three of his teammates with the crime of "cheating," because their alleged actions would have deceived or defrauded the people who bought tickets to see the matches.

According to Gupta, Crowe of New Zealand was paid dlrs 20,000 for information about the pitch, weather and team strategy whenever New Zealand played. A similar sum was paid to Waugh of Australia, the CBI report says.

The report says that Australian batsman Dean Jones had refused to accept an offered dlrs 40,000 to provide such information to a bookmaker.

Gupta told the CBI that he had paid dlrs 40,000 to Lara, of the West Indies, to underperform in two one-day matches when his team toured India 1994.

South Africa's Cronje has admitted that he undertook to throw a match and offered two other players bribes to do likewise, but said none of them followed through on the deal.

Australian Cricket Board spokesman Brian Murgatroyd said Australian authorities were not prepared to make any comment on Waugh, the CBI report or any related matter until they had read the report.

In a similar reaction, the English team's media manager, Andrew Walpole said cricketing authorities would comment on the report only after going through it.

However, following an International Cricket Council meeting in May to thrash out a policy on match-fixing after the Cronje affair, the game's governors were considering a five-year ban on anyone found guilty of providing information for financial reward.

The CBI report also alleges that Manoj Prabhakar, a former Indian all-rounder, introduced several foreign players to bookmakers and provided information to the bookies about Test matches and one-day international matches.

Prabhakar had accused former Indian captain Kapil Dev of attempting to bribe him with 2.5 million rupees (dlrs 57,340) to throw a 1994 match against Pakistan.

The CBI report however, said that there was no evidence to support Prabhakar's accusations against Dev.

Dr. Ali Irani, the former physiotherapist of the Indian team, "acted as a conduit for receiving payments on behalf of Azharuddin from M.K. (Gupta) and associates," the report said.