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Mohammed Azharuddin & Ajay Sharma banned for LIFE!

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December 6, 2000 

NEW DELHI, India (AP) - Indian cricket authorities on Tuesday imposed life bans on former captain Mohammed Azharuddin and test cricketer Ajay Sharma for their involvement in a matchfixing scandal, Press Trust of India news agency said.

Two other players, Ajay Jadeja and Manoj Prabhakar, were suspended from playing for five years, said A. C. Muthiah, chief of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, after a meeting of the Disciplinary Committee held in Madras, the capital of southern Tamil Nadu state.

The four players were found guilty by the Central Bureau of Investigation, India's FBI, on the basis of testimonies of bookmakers.

The Indian government ordered a CBI probe in April after New Delhi police charged former South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje and three other players with match-fixing after secretly monitoring their phone conversations with bookies during an Indian tour earlier this year.

Azharuddin and Jadeja were dropped from the Indian squad four months ago, while Prabhakar and Sharma retired from the game several years ago.

Cronje had named Azharuddin as the cricketer who introduced him to an Indian bookie, but the former Indian skipper has denied this.

Prabhakar, a former Indian all-rounder, also accused former 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 cleared Dev's name for the lack of evidence. But he quit as coach of the Indian squad after he was questioned by the CBI about Prabhakar's accusation.

In July, income tax officials raided homes and offices of several Indian cricketers, cricket officials and bookies and uncovered huge investments in real estate and fat bank balances.