Azharuddin has a date with CBI

Thursday was a rather active day on the match-fixing front but the focus was on former Indian captain Mohd. Azharuddin who deposed before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and on the King Commission where the cross examination of the former South African captain Hansie Cronje's continued.

For the second day running, Cronje refused the names of players who supported his suggestion of accepting a bribe of 200,000 dollars in 1996 to throw a one-day international in India. Cronje said "`It may put people in bad light and after five or six years I may be incorrect in naming players."

In what could be called as a dramatic development, Cronje in his deposition said he believed that Azharuddin might not have known that Mukesh Gupta (MK), who had been introduced to Cronje by Azhar, was actually a bookie. Replying to the commission on Azhar's link with Gupta, Cronje said "I don't believe Azhar knew what the conversation was about. He left the room. I don't have any reason to believe that he knew about my dealings with Mr. Gupta." To a question on whether Azhar knew anything about his dealing with Gupta, Cronje replied "He might have an idea, but that would be speculation on my part. I never asked him about whether or not he knew after that."

Meanwhile, Azharuddin appeared before the CBI today in connection with the match-fixing scandal. He was grilled for over five hours at CBI headquarters. Azhar's deposition gains significance in the wake of Cronje's testimony that it was Azhar who introduced him to an alleged Indian bookie Mukesh Gupta.

Meanwhile, the Minster of State for Finance V Dhananjay Kumar said the Government would not divulge any information relating to the VDIS declaration unless it was legally required and indicated investigations were on into tax evasion by some cricketers. Replying to a question whether any cricketers had declared under the VDIS scheme, Kumar said "We will reveal it only if it is legally required to part with some information." Asked whether the government had started investigations into tax evasion by some cricket players, he said "we have started investigations and some cricketers are also in it.'' He however refused to name any player.

Mukesh Gupta who has been in thick of things and was believed to be absconding by the CBI is at present holidaying with his family. This was confirmed by Mukesh Gupta's counsel Vineet Malhotra in New Delhi. Malhotra said Gupta's father had now told the CBI that he would send his son immediately to the agency on his arrival. "We are trying to get in touch with him and if the agency feels, we would call him," Malhotra said and refused to disclose the place where he was at present. This is contrary to the earlier statement made by Mukesh's father who said his son was 'missing'.

Finally, one expects more reactions in the coming days after Azhar's deposition. If one goes by Cronje's reaction, Azhar may have reacted a bit too early by rubbishing the statement. Now that he has deposed before the CBI, clouds surrounding over his head may have partly cleared. Nevertheless it's still a long way to go for the investigative agency to make any major breakthrough in the matchfixing case.