Chandrachud sees nothing and report says nothing

NEW DELHI, APRIL 20: The much-awaited Chandrachud Committee report, assiduously kept under wraps although bits and pieces had appeared in ...

NEW DELHI, APRIL 20: The much-awaited Chandrachud Committee report, assiduously kept under wraps although bits and pieces had appeared in a section of the media was tabled in the Lok Sabha today. And, predictably, it turned out to be a washout with Justice Y V Chandrachud exonerating all Indian players and officials saying that charges of match-fixing “lacked substance and were unjustified.”

However, he said that “the possibility that some Indian players may be laying the flutter of a bet” could not be ruled out but added that it could not be concluded that “they lay bets for losing a match.” Claiming that there is large-scale betting on cricket, he dismissed it as a “human weakness like drinking” and a “law-and-order problem.” And the only suggestion that he came up with at the end of his 94 pages was that “entry to the press box should be screened properly.”

The report, which includes statements of past and present cricketers, officials of Board of Cricket Control of India (BCCI), former team managers and journalists, was tabled by Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports S S Dhindsa amid a heated debate in the Lok Sabha.

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Dhindsa said that the government would not hesitate to order a detailed investigation by any of its agencies to get to the bottom of the affair. He said he had called a meeting of top cricketers and board officials on April 27.

Some members, including Vijay Goel and former cricketer Kirti Azad, suggested that players found guilty should be prosecuted for “treason” as they, like the Army jawans, were fighting for their country. Congress MP Shyama Sinha said that BCCI president had called her up this morning complaining that he was getting threatening calls from India and abroad. Sinha asked the Home Minister to provide him security.

The Chandrachud report, meanwhile found “no data” to prove the allegations made by former test player Manoj Prabhakar and reduced him to veritable villain of the piece. It was on Prabhakar’s statement to a news magazine the enquiry was instituted. “I have no hesitation in rejecting the allegations made by Manoj Prabhakar. They are imaginary and unrealistic,” the judge said. In fact, Justice Chandrachud took no cognizance of statements of some former test cricketers like Kapil Dev (now manager of the Indian team), former DDCA secretary Sunil Dev and journalists who have categorically said that match-fixing is possible.

Instead, he took the statements of other players including Azharuddin, Nayan Mongia and Ajay Jadeja at face value. They categorically deny that a match can ever be fixed. “I accept without hesitation the statements of Sachin Tendulkar, Azharuddin, Mongia, Jadeja, Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Ajit Wadekar, Dilip Vengsarkar, Sanjay Manjrekar, Chandu Borde, Sandeep Patil, D V Subba Rao, Dr Ali Irani, Makarand Waingarkar, Balasaheb J. Pandit, R. Mohan, S.K Shyam and Pradeep Vijaykar.”

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“So far as other persons whose statements were recorded by me are concerned, who are mostly journalists, even they have not been able to identify any particular player or players in the Indian team as being parties to match fixing or who bet on cricket. These journalists, undoubtedly respectable, have drawn their own inferences on the general sitiation which now obtains in the game of cricket,” Chandrachud stated.

Chandrachud said that merely on statements of these people, who did not have any proof of match-fixing, the allegations could not be taken as true. Referring to a prominent journalist’s article and statement that he had been approached by a bookie with an offer of Rs 40 lakh if he could get Sachin Tendulkar (to fix a match), Chandrachud said: “It is not possible to hold on the basis of the artcile that any particular Indian player or players lay bets, participate in fixing matches or deliberately perform below their form and ability.”

Chandrachud also overlooked the fact that then team manager Ajit Wadekar suspected players’ involvement in match-fixing in India-South Africa series, thus allegedly tapping their telephone, but gone into the legality of tapping. “Tapping of phones by a private individual, be it the manager of a cricket team, is illegal,” he says, and adds that he is “inclined to accept the explanation given by him before me.” Wadekar had told him that he had used the word “tap” by mistake.

Chandrachud has completely dismissed all Prabhakar’s allegations and tries to find the reason for them. “Why he should have resorted to tactics like these? The answer is provided by his own peers. According to them, Manoj lost his equipoise because he was thrown out of the Indian team,” states Chandrachud, inclined to believe Prabhakar’s colleagues and goes in great details about his character, psycho-analysing him in the report.

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In fact, Chandrachud appears almost prejudiced against Prabhakar, destroying his credibility, when he rejects one of his statements as false. Denying Prabhakar’s statement — when Aamir Sohail and Azharuddin, both claimed that the other had won the toss — Chandrachud said that the two had never tossed together. The news magazine, to substantiate Prabhakar’s statement, had even published the photograph of both tossing together in a subsequent issue.