I think there’ll be no more fixing — Dhindsa

NOV 1: Finally, the CBI report on match-fixing was made public at the Shastri Bhavan of Sports Minister Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, here on Wed...

NOV 1: Finally, the CBI report on match-fixing was made public at the Shastri Bhavan of Sports Minister Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, here on Wednesday. As the sports minister himself said, “Most of you have already seen the report and know what it contains”, he was spot on.

The 162-page report, which hinges on the involvement of Indians Mohammad Azharuddin, Ajay Jadeja, Manoj Prabhakar, Nayan Mongia, Ajay Sharma and former physio Ali Irani and some foreign players, will now be sent to the Law and Home ministries for their recommendations. That apart, the sports minister will have a meeting with the Indian cricket board chief AC Muthiah on November 3 and apprise the Board about Law Ministry’s recommendations.

When asked if the government will prosecute Azhar and Ajay, both of whom are public servants, Dhindsa told a huge media gathering: “Right now, it is difficult to talk about the likely punishments. After the legal opinion, we will decide accordingly.”

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The CBI report too doesn’t make any recommendations on the punishment, admitting it lacks direct evidence to support the findings .

The report says former India skipper Azhar, who confessed to have “fixed some matches”, needed the help of his teammates Mongia and Jadeja in this regard. The report further says Prabhakar was a the direct link between the bookies (prominent being the Delhi-based Mukesh Gupta or MK) and foreign players, the Australians Dean Jones and Mark Waugh, Pakistani Salim Malik, Sri Lankans Arjuna Ranatunga and Aravinda de Silva, West Indian Brian Lara, New Zealander Martin Crowe and English Alce Stewart. The disgraced South African skipper Hansie Cronje, was of course dealt by Azhar.

About Ali Irani, who was the Indian team’s physio for about a decade, the report allegee him as being "Azhar’s conduit". It also looks at former Pakistani skipper Asif Iqbal, who is presently a co-ordinator with the Sharkah-based Cricketers Benefit Fund Series, with a suspicious eye.

The report gives a clean chit to Kapil Dev, Nikhil Chopra and Navjot Sidhu on the basis of "no evidence".

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The report also accuses the board of being indifferent towards all the wrongdoings. It cites the infamous ’94 Kanpur one-day match against the West Indies, in which both Prabhakar and Mongia slowed down towards the end of Indian innings and questions as to why the board didn’t probe the show?

"Although there is no concrete evidence to suggest the direct involvement of any of the members of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, their resolute indifference does give rise to suspicion that there was perhaps more than that meets the eye."

“The board has been negligent in not preventing match-fixing and related malpractices in cricket in spite of clear signals about the malaise. This is mainly due to the fact that, for most office-bearers of BCCI, running the board is an end in itself and the future of cricket is only incidental."

Dhindsa, however, sees a sliver lining now. “I think there will be no match-fixing at least for the time being as the report will have a deterrent effect on the present cricketers. It will have a good impact on the game of cricket,” he said.