Azhar not to take legal action against website

Mohammed Azharuddin has always been an unpredictable sort. A ball pitched well outside the off stump would be dispatched to the mid wicket fence. The next one on the leg stump would mysteriously find its way to the cover fence. That he was equally unpredictable off the field is becoming evident.

When his name was first strongly linked to the matchfixing controversy by the website tehelka.com, Azhar reacted sharply and predictably. He flatly denied all allegations, went to the extent of saying that he was being persecuted because he was from the minority community and vowed to sue the website.

As the drama has unfolded, he seems to have softened up his stance somewhat. Just recently Azhar's residences across the country and bank lockers were searched by income tax officials. Although the specific details of what was revealed by the raids has not been made public yet, varying reports claim that Azhar has amounts to the tune of Rs 170 crore, in the form of real estate and other assets stashed away.

Tehelka.com has been especially damning in their reports. Despite this, Azhar's lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani said yesterday that the former Indian captain had no plans to take legal action against the web site. Cricketnext.com reports Mahesh Jethmalani saying " Azhar has not contacted me so far about this. In fact, he is not suing the website for publicising the Prabhakar Tapes either. As I said, I have received no advice from him to sue this particular website."

On earlier occasions, Azhar has denied allegations strongly. At one point he even went to the extent of distributing leaflets at an airport claiming "I'm clean clean clean." If anything, such actions caused him to lose credibility. A more experienced Azhar now is content replying with the tried and tested "No comments." Although that might be a safe course of action to take, the fact that he has not denied the allegations is a cause of worry to the few fans he has left.