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Change Your Life! |
"I will not leave the team high and dry,": Kapil |
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News |
May 9, 2000 NEW DELHI, May 7: India cricket coach and former test captain Kapil Dev sobbed during a television interview as he angrily denied an allegation of match-fixing. He said he would commit suicide rather than take a bribe. Dev has begun legal action after Inderjit Singh Bindra, former president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), said in a CNN television interview he had been told of the accusation by former test all-rounder Manoj Prabhakar. A tape recording of the BBC interview with Dev, scheduled to be broadcast on Wednesday, was made available to Reuters on Sunday. "Hurt is not the answer," Dev, who led India to World Cup victory in 1983, said in response to a question by interviewer Karan Thapar. "Can
somebody spoil somebody's life like this?," Dev asked, his voice
breaking with emotion. "I will commit suicide...rather than take a bribe from somebody." Dev said he would continue with his coaching job, although he would prefer India to opt out of international cricket until the match-fixing scandal was "put to rest". "I will not leave the team high and dry," he said. Cricket was rocked last month when Delhi police charged South African captain Hansie Cronje and three of his team mates with "cheating, fraud and criminal conspiracy" during a one-day series against India earlier this year. They denied the allegations but Cronje was subsequently sacked after admitting taking money from a bookmaker for information and forecasting during a one-day series against Zimbabwe and England in South Africa last January. India's federal police have begun investigating allegations concerning Indian players while the International Cricket Council decided last week to impose stiff penalties, including life bans, for activities related to match-fixing.
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