BCCI divided over punishment issue

The former Indian captain Mohammed Azharuddin has made it clear to the BCCI's disciplinary committee that he had never at any time informed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that he had fixed matches. In fact, Azhar has gone to the extent of apologising to Ajay Jadeja maintaining that he had not named the cricketer during the CBI interrogation. It may be recalled that the CBI in its report stated that Azhar had named Jadeja as a player who had helped him to fix matches.

These contradictory statements made by Azharuddin has made it very difficult for the BCCI to take a prompt decision regarding the enforcement of discipline. They have another problem too as a large section of the members are finding contradictions in the reports of the BCCI anti-corruption commissioner and the CBI.

Even though the BCCI president AC Muthiah said today that the decision to punish the players would be announced early next week, the vice-president Kamal Morarka is in no hurry to do so. "The CBI took six months to give their report. Why do you people want us to punish the players so quickly? Let us first assess the contents of the report given by the former joint director of the CBI K. Madhavan," said Morarka after today's meeting. Incidentally, along with Muthiah and Ramprasad, Morarka is also a member of the disciplinary committee.

However, after the meeting it seemed that quite a few members who attended the special general body meeting were not satisfied at the delay in punishing the allegedly guilty cricketers. Two or three members made it clear that the BCCI was probably apprehensive of a long term litigation process once the punishments are announced. A new entrant to the special general body said, "It seems that they are afraid of punishing the players." Overall there appears to be a division in the BCCI regarding the kind of punishment that will be given.