NEW DELHI, MAY 4: Indian cricket's icon Kapil Dev now finds himself dragged into Cricketgate. In the early hours of Thursday when most of India was asleep, Inderjit Singh Bindra ``unveiled'' Manoj Prabhakar's closely guarded secret claiming that it was Kapil who offered the former Test all-rounder Rs 24 lakh to ``underplay'' himself in 1994 in Colombo. Bindra told a TV channel: ``Prabhakar had last week told me the name of the player and that player happens to be Kapil Dev.''Bindra, who had gone to London armed with what he called ``damaging proof,'' was denied permission to attend the two-day emergency session of the International Cricket Council called to discuss match-fixing allegations.In Delhi, Kapil reacted swiftly and issued a press statement: ``It has been brought to my notice that certain baseless allegations have been made in an interview aired on CNN. I have discussed this with my lawyers who are taking appropriate action against those responsible for uttering these reckless allegations.'' Prabhakar, as he has been doing for the past three years, neither denied nor admitted to having named Kapil, this time to Bindra. In Lucknow, where he had gone to advertise his company which manufactures cosmetic herbal products, Prabhakar said that he did not know why Bindra made the claim. He was quoted by PTI as saying: ``Let the CBI investigations finish, many more facts will come out.''Kapil, who had earlier been named by a magazine for having ``accepted money from a bookie'' was seething with anger at his Bengali Market office this evening. ``I have had enough. I did not react earlier to these wild allegations but I can't take it any more. They have woken up a sleeping tiger and now I am not going to keep quiet.''In the din of ceaseless ringing of phones, of requests from various TV channels for interviews and terse replies to newsmen that `I have already issued a press statement' Kapil said: ``I have played cricket for 20 years with my sweat and blood and today I can't allow all the name and fame I have earned through the game to be smeared by these allegations. I challenge anybody to prove even the remotest of links with any bookie.''Is he going to sue Prabhakar? ``How can I? He has not taken my name so far,'' Kapil said, adding, ``Let any player who has played with me or any journalist or administrator who knows me say that they have ever heard that I was involved in these activities. And those who are naming me, let them come out in the open. I am ready for the fight and for all answers.''
