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SPORTS:
CRICKET
The
Plot Thickens
CBI
PROBE INTO THE AHMEDABAD TEST MATCH OF 1999
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| Kapil
associate Haathi during the tax raid |
With
his dramatic abdication as national coach Kapil Dev may well imagine that
his troubles are over. But the CBI's investigations into cricket still
remain. The agency is less than a month away from releasing its report
into match-fixing and its officials state in private that when it comes
to the difficult business of linking a cricketer to match-fixing and unaccounted
sources of income, the sturdiest evidence at their command is against
Kapil and former captain Mohammed Azharuddin.
Despite his overt confidence at the end of interrogation by the CBI in
early September, there are indications that it will be hard to keep the
former captain out of the agency's much-awaited report. According to an
official, Kapil did not have a very good case, particularly in the light
of a few incidents from late 1999. Manoj Prabhakar's secretly videotaped
conversation with Board Secretary J.Y. Lele is critical. Lele told Prabhakar
it was Kapil's decision not to enforce the follow-on in the Ahmedabad
Test against New Zealand in December. Captain Sachin Tendulkar wanted
to enforce the follow-on but, according to Lele, Kapil prevailed on Tendulkar
to bat again. Although the tapes have no legal value, this incident did
provide a lead. Particularly because only a few days before the release
of the Prabhakar tapes, a former BCCI president had tipped off the CBI
about a "certain deal" between Kapil and businessman Hiren Haathi
during that Ahmedabad Test. The CBI asked the it Department to run a check
on him, and the 30-year-old Haathi's Ahmedabad residence was raided during
"Operation Gentleman".
During the raids, officials reportedly found incriminating documents and
a diary with cricketers' initials in it. Haathi and Kapil, who were spotted
together during the infamous Test, aren't just acquaintances, they are
said to have business dealings too. Kapil's firm Musco had been asked
to provide floodlights for the Motera Stadium outside Ahmedabad by the
Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA). A cash-strapped GCA couldn't pay Kapil
directly and offered him in-stadia advertising rights instead. At this
point Kapil asked Haathi and his ad firm AJ Promotions (in which Ajay
Jadeja is a partner) to handle the deal. The it Department was helped
by a tip-off from the former BCCI president that Haathi had suddenly acquired
three apartments and three Opels during the Ahmedabad Test. Investigators
are confident they can link the decision not to enforce the follow-on
by Kapil with Haathi's acquisitions. Two of Kapil's businesses-Devyogi
Enterprises and Dev & Dev-have also been investigated by the it Department
in the past three years. However, the CBI has plenty to prove and Kapil
may have valid explanations for his actions. For the moment Kapil offers
no comment: "I cannot explain anything. Any more. You are free to
write whatever you wish, I have nothing to say. Let me be. Please."
-Sayantan
Chakravarty
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