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COVER
STORY: CRICKET
The
Golden Goose
Sharma
who was playing club cricket in England became the next lead: Sawani and
dig Y.P. Singh flew to London. "We knew that Sharma could lead us
deeper into the cricketer-bookie nexus. But we did not expect that he
would tell us so much," admits a senior member of the investigation
team. Sharma spent a day with the CBI team at the Indian High Commission,
initially reluctant but later compliant. He provided a fresh set of leads
and admitted that he had links with bookies. Among the crucial details
disclosed by Sharma was his links with Gupta since 1988, how he introduced
Azhar (the nexus between Azhar and Sharma was exposed by INDIA TODAY,
May 1) and Manoj Prabhakar to Gupta. Sharma was also in constant touch
with a clutch of north Delhi bookies, including a man named Ajay Gupta
(see box) who had financed his and his family's trip to England during
the 1999 World Cup.
If Sharma
was a "good investment", Azhar, a far more successful cricketer
and Indian captain to boot, was the golden goose for the bookies. He was
introduced to Mukesh Gupta in 1995 by Sharma at Delhi's Taj Palace Hotel.
Sharma was paid Rs 5 lakh for doing so while Azhar accepted an advance
of Rs 50 lakh from Gupta, promising to throw matches. The very next year,
he accepted a whopping Rs 80 lakh from Anil Steel, a Mumbai-based bookie,
for underperforming. Steel, who has since gone into hiding, moved over
from being racecourse bookie to the cricket field through an associate,
Mahendra Fort, who is alleged to have connections in the underworld. In
his testimony to the CBI, Steel revealed that he is close to former Pakistani
captain Asif Iqbal who runs cricket in Sharjah, where illegal betting
is said to thrive. Steel also said he had introduced Gupta to Iqbal in
Calcutta in 1996. Azhar also had links with Ajay Gupta's group of Delhi-based
bookies because during matches he had used a cell phone registered in
the name of the company of Gyan Gupta, an associate of Ajay Gupta.
Critically
for the CBI, Azhar has confessed to having fixed matches, admitting that
he received money from Gupta for influencing the result of two Titan Cup
matches in 1996 and one match in the Pepsi Cup in 1999. He is also perhaps
the only player approached by the underworld to fix games, a matter for
further investigations. According to the Indian team physiotherapist Ali
Irani's testimony to the CBI, "Azhar had once said that since he
was doing matches with Anees Ibrahim, he would not do with anyone else."
Anees is the brother of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. According to Mumbai
Police Commissioner M.N. Singh, a photograph of Azhar with Tiger Memon
(a Dawood henchman who was the main accused in the Mumbai serial bomb
blasts case) was found during investigations into the blasts. Azhar also
told the CBI that underworld hitman Abu Salem had approached him to fix
matches, but he had refused. His alleged links with the underworld did
Azhar in, trapped as he was with far too much money and dubious friends.
The CBI
was able to move on to the two players-Ajay Jadeja and Nayan Mongia-named
by Azhar as his trusted allies in match-fixing. Mongia has been given
the benefit of doubt but Jadeja remains in a state of denial. Indian cricket
insiders say that there is even a move to reinstate Jadeja into the Indian
team and his defiance during the investigations is only meant to smoothen
his path back into the side. The CBI was able to establish through phone
records that the flamboyant all-rounder had close relations with a number
of bookies. Damningly, both Mukesh Gupta and Sharma told the CBI that
Jadeja had visited the bookie's home (with Ajay Sharma) in 1996, "offering
his services" for match-fixing. Mukesh wanted to know how many more
players Jadeja could promise him but despite no deals being made, Jadeja
was given Rs 50,000 of which he gave Rs 18,000 to Sharma for the introduction.
Despite having documentary proof that he called a Chennai bookie Uttam
Chand 50-60 times a day on several occasions, Jadeja was unyielding. His
excuse: cricketing superstition.
Other than
these high-profile names, the decision to give Kapil Dev a clean chit
(see box) and the evidence against Prabhakar, the original whistle blower
in the scandal, were the most startling conclusions in the report. The
CBI concludes that both during his playing career and after it, Prabhakar
had links with a clutch of bookies and punters. Prabhakar told INDIA TODAY
that the CBI report was not his complete testimony, "It is perhaps
25 per cent of what I said. My effort to get people talking candidly about
match-fixing on the Tehelka.com videotapes seems to have gone waste."
He reiterates that he has no regrets about pursuing the course of action
he did. "I chose this path on my own and I sleep well at night. I
am not about to cry like a baby or get angry like a wild person."
The CBI
admits that the report may stand on thin ice as far as establishing a
legal case of cheating against the fixers because of the grey area of
proving who had been cheated in this case. There are antiquated anti-gambling
laws dating back to 1867 which do not cover the contemporary scenario
of cricket, cell phones and bets per ball. The only legal action could
be taken under the prevention of corruption act against "public servants"
i.e. Azhar and Ajay Sharma who were employed by the government. For these
reasons, the way forward for the game of cricket now is to deal with the
problem from within, through a thorough and ruthless clean-up. Already
ICC chief Malcolm Gray has warned the cricket world to expect more bad
news. Brace yourself for future shock.
-with
Sheela Raval and Vijay
Jung Thapa
Pg.
2
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