Match-fixing — Govt orders CBI probe

Dhindsa, however, said investigations into the involvement of South African captain Hanse Cronje in match-fixing during his team’s recent tour of India would be completed by the Delhi Police. The CBI will look only into the Indian aspect of the scandal.

Ruling out suspension of cricket matches by India till completion of the inquiry, as suggested by Indian team coach Kapil Dev, Dhindsa said, “This would be gross injustice to the game and its fans.”

Dhindsa also said that full protection would be provided to anybody coming up with fresh evidence, while assuring former Test cricketer Manoj Prabhakar security for cooperating with the probe. He said he had given such an assurance to Prabhakar when the latter met him this morning. The Minister added that it was time that Prabhakar, who was the first to raise the issue of match-fixing in India by alleging that a teammate had offered him Rs 24 lakh to tank a match in 1994 in Colombo, came out with names.

Regarding the time-frame for the CBI probe, Dhindsa said no such period could be set as the probe would be extensive. “But we would like it to be completed at the earliest possible,” he said.

Dhindsa said the probe was necessary to ensure that “those who are guilty must be punished and those who are innocent must not be slandered”.

Regarding former Board president Inderjit Singh Bindra’s statement about receiving threatening calls after his allegations of Indian players’ involvement, Dhindsa said the Government would provide protection to all those people who come up with any evidence.

Meanwhile, the cricketing world welcomed the probe and among the first to react were Kapil and Prabhakar.

“It’s good. The Government should do it. Doodh ka doodh, pani ka pani ho jayega (the grain will be separated from the chaff),” Kapil said. “This air of suspicion should be removed once and for all.”

Prabhakar reacted by saying the probe “will be good for the future of the game” and assured full cooperation in the investigation. He said he would reveal the names at an appropriate time.

The Indian Board, which for the past few years was not willing to agree for a proper legal probe, too welcomed the Government announcement. Board president AC Muthiah said in Chennai that the CBI probe was in keeping with their demand and hoped Dhindsa would fix a time-frame for the investigations to be completed.

“Our demand in the meeting (held in Delhi yesterday) was a CBI inquiry and I had pledged there to the Minister that the Board would cooperate to the hilt with the Government and its agency inquiring into the allegations.

“I also welcome the Minister’s statement in Parliament that `those who make ill-founded allegations must be exposed’,” Muthiah said.

Similar was the reaction of ICC president Jagmohan Dalmiya in Calcutta. “I welcome this. I myself had proposed a CBI inquiry during the meeting with Mr Dhindsa yesterday,” he said.

Dalmiya said the CBI enjoyed “public goodwill” and there was a general perception that the agency maintained an independent and impartial approach which was “necessary at the moment to restore the image of the game.”

Dhindsa’s statement — though not as hard-hitting as many were expecting — came days after a number of MPs, including Kirti Azad (himself a former cricketer), Kamal Nath, Sudeep Bandopadhyay and Vijay Kumar Malhotra, had demanded a CBI probe into the match-fixing allegations.

Chawla’s passport revoked, Kishan Kumar rearrested

London: The passport of Sanjeev Chawla, prime accused in the match-fixing scandal, has been revoked by the Indian High Commission here, official sources said today.

New Belhi: The Delhi Police today arrested Bollywood actor Kishan Kumar, at present in judicial custody in a Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) violation case, soon after the Supreme Court stayed his anticipatory bail granted by Delhi High Court in the sensational match-fixing case.