Even with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) deciding to wash its hands off the conversation between West Indies player Marlon Samuels and bookmaker Mukesh Kochar, the International Cricket Council (ICC) is gearing up to find out more about the entire issue.ICC media manager Brian Murgatroyd told The Indian Express on Friday that their Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) officials would be arriving in India on Monday and will proceed to Nagpur to discuss the finer details of the case and the ongoing controversy with police commissioner SPS Yadav.The Indian board has already announced that since none of their cricketers are involved in the issue, they will not play any part in the investigation process. “All that we can do is forward the information provided to us by the Nagpur police to the ICC. After that, it is their lookout and that of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB),’’ BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah said.The visiting investigating officials from Dubai, after meeting with the Nagpur police, will submit a detailed report of the same to the ICC bosses who, in turn, will forward the findings to the WICB. “The nature of punishment, if Samuels is proved guilty of any misconduct, will entirely depend on them (WICB),’’ Murgatroyd further informed.In such a case, if the player is proved guilty, the ICC Code of Conduct calls for a ban of anywhere between two to five years on the player. However, a BCCI official informs that given the fact that West Indies skipper Brian Lara and other WICB officials have already talked in favour of Samuels, there are lesser chances that the player would be punished, even if it was for letting out the team secret.Nagpur’s Deputy Commissioner of Police Amitesh Kumar, who is currently in charge of the case, said that his “team will wait for the ICC officials to arrive and fully cooperate with them.’’While Kumar informed that “the police has still not come across any evidence of financial commitments or deals,’’ they were assured that as far as the ICC law goes, the player is guilty. “We will go by the prima facie evidence, which according to the transcript is a gross violation of the ICC Code of Conduct,’’ he said.ICC’s regional security officer from India, N.S. Virk will not be in Nagpur along with other officials on Monday. Instead, Virk and his team have been busy at Rajkot to ensure that no such situation arises in the one-dayer to be played here between India and Sri Lanka on Sunday.While Virk has been completely inaccessible to the media since the turn of events happened, Rajkot’s police commissioner K. Nityanandan told the media here that “Virk would work in tandem with the local cops to keep a strict vigil on betting activities in this region.’’
