APRIL 29: It is amusing to read that it was the Board which was keen that a government agency should probe the match-fixing scandal so that the `fair name of the game is cleared up once and for all.' Ever since stories regarding the Indian connection to this sordid affair started surfacing from 1997, Board officials have maintained that all this was being done to malign the great game for the sake of `juicy stories.' Dalmiya was the Board secretary then and Dungarpur the president. The Justice Chandrachud probe, which Dungarpur said last fortnight was an in-house inquiry, was commissioned after great reluctance and its findings that all is well with the game was announced with much fanfare.After that, the Board tried its best to scuttle even suggestions for a more serious investigation into a scandal which, it was becoming obvious to one and all - except those running the game - had its roots running much deeper than what most had suspected. It is no secret now that the Delhi police stumbled into Hansie Cronje's link with the bookies through sheer chance: They had tapped the phones of a businessman who was receiving threats from the underworld. Even after a case was filed, what was the official Board reaction? Do they know that their secretary, Jaywant Lele, had reacted to the police FIR against Cronje by saying: ``It is all rubbish and nothing can be proved.'' Unless they want to disown Lele, the world, naturally, took his utterances on the subject as the official stand of the Board, especially since for once, no denial was forthcoming.Only one man went against the collective wisdom of the officials and fortunately, he happened to be someone important in the Board hierarchy: AC Muthiah. The president of the Board was the first to say that there is no harm in seeking a government probe into the whole affair. Dungarpur held the opposite view. He said on a TV channel that, ``There is no need for reopening the whole issue after Justice Chandrachud had exonerated all the players.'' He even went to the extent of saying that he did not understand why Muthiah wanted the whole issue to be reopened.With a fresh set of allegations being levelled daily and the names of even our all-time legends being dragged into this murky world, there was, one guesses, little choice for the Government but to order a probe.What is to be welcomed is the announcement that the probe won't deal only with the match-fixing angle, but will also go into the various TV and other deals in which the Board has been involved. In fact, there are many who feel that the Board accounts should be looked into by the CAG so that all doubts about any irregularities having been committed are removed.As for the probe, the sceptics ask - and they are a vast number - when did you last hear of the CBI solving a case? I hope you are not, like me, groping for an answer.
