Old hat, say cricket circles

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, APRIL 20. The wraps were finally off as the Government pulled the Chandrachud Committee report on match fixing out of the mothballs on Thursday and tabled it in Parliament, but with its findings and even some of the contents already known there was little excitement. And, ironically, cricket circles were the least excited. It was old hat, they said, pointing out that extensive extracts from it have already been published.

In the Lok Sabha, many members were not even aware that it had been tabled and the Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports, Mr. S. S. Dhindsa, had to repeatedly draw their attention to it.

As is already known, the committee, appointed by the BCCI in June 1997 following allegations of betting and match- fixing, delivered a ``not guilty'' verdict, saying that ``all these allegations depend on the oral word and there is no concrete evidence.''

``In the absence of such evidence, it would be unfair for me to make any positive statement, either on the question of match- fixing or on the involvement of our players in betting,'' Mr. Justice Chandrachud said in the report which he gave to the BCCI in November 1997.

The 94-page report is in two parts. The first part running into nearly 45 pages consists of statements of cricketers, managers, coaches and journalists whom Mr. Justice Chandrachud interviewed; and the second contains his findings. The whole galaxy of the country's cricket stars- Sachin Tendulkar, Mohammad Azharuddin, Sunil Gavaskar, Ajay Jadeja, Nayan Mongia, Ajit Wadekar, Sandip Patil among others- deposed before the committee, but barring Manoj Prabhakar none of the cricketers even as much as suggested that matches were fixed. Some said, yes, there could be betting, but no, not by Indian players- and certainly they didn't bet to lose matches. The journalists who deposed before the committee were a more suspicious lot, but failed to convince the committee.

Manoj Prabhakar, whose allegations in a magazine interview actually led the BCCI to set up the committee, stuck to his story. ``My story is true. I did not speak out for three years because I wanted to play cricket. It is not cricket that I have made up the story because I was put out of the team. I was thrown out of the team because I was not treated well,'' he told the committee but refused to disclose the names of team-mates or others who allegedly offered him bribe to lose a match. ``...because if I do so, my life will be in danger. I was given a threat to that effect by persons who offered me bribe.''

The report rejects, point by point, Prabhakar's allegations, variously calling them ``concocted,'' ``vague,'' and ``unfounded.''

In a stinging comment, it says: ``....the very persistence and tenor of the allegations made by Manoj tend to show that rightly or wrongly the alleged bribe-givers entertained the belief that Manoj was the right person for paying bribe in order to sabotage the performance of the Indian team.''

If cricketers get a clean chit from the committee, so do journalists who are exonerated for lack of ``credible evidence.''

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