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Top Indian cricket official says federal unit will probe match fixing |
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May 27, 2000
NEW DELHI, MAY 26 (AP) - India's top cricket official said it was up to federal investigators to probe allegations by a former Indian cricketer that current national coach Kapil Dev offered him a bribe to underplay against Pakistan in 1994, a newspaper reported Friday.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is already verifying former all-rounder Manoj Prabhakar's claim that Dev, then a member of the team, offered him 2.5 million rupees (dlrs 57,400 at current rates) to underperform in a match against arch rival Pakistan in Bangladesh.
At a lengthy news conference on Thursday night Dev issued no denial of the allegations, but threatened to hit Prabhakar if he met him.
Meanwhile, A.C. Muthiah, president of the Board of Cricket Control in India, was quoted by the Pioneer newspaper as saying, "It is up to the CBI to find out the truth." Muthiah, who was in France as part of an Indian business delegation, said he was yet to get full details of Prabhakar's allegations.
But Muthiah said none of the six players who Prabhakar claimed were aware of the incident had reported the matter to board officials. On Wednesday night, Prabhakar told a new Indian Internet web site, Tehelka.com., that on the evening before the match he was shaving in his bathroom when his roommate, Navjot Singh Siddhu, came in and said, "Brother wants to talk to you. He has an offer."
Asked whether that account was true, Dev did not directly deny it in his press conference Thursday.
"It was six years ago. One cannot remember such details," he said.
On
Wednesday, Prabhakar gave the CBI a sworn statement on his allegations.
Details of his talks with investigators were not known.
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