BETTING_ARRESTS_30SEP1997

Tuesday 30 September 1997

Calcutta police act on betting Mihir Bose.

INDIA`S defeat against Pakistan in a one-day match in Hyderabad on Sunday - when the Indian batting collapsed dramatically - could have been the target of match-fixing.

That is the view of Calcutta police who on Sunday night arrested Om Prakash Dhanuka, seizing documents, cash and computer files allegedly containing names and information on cricket bookies.

The Asian Age daily, an Indian paper which is also dis- tributed in London, quotes a police official, Rajendra Kumar, who claimed Dhanuka had taken -L8.5 million in bets during cricket matches.

He quoted betting sources as saying that the "odds were heavily in favour of Pakistan" and they won "convincingly".

Earlier this month, Pakistan and India played their annual oneday tournament in Toronto where, to the surprise of many, India - who have had little success against Pakistan in recent years - won 4-1.

Bookmaking outside racecourses is illegal in India and banned in Pakistan.

The arrest in Calcutta comes three years after Shane Warne and Tim May rocked the cricket world by alleging that the then Pakistan captain, Salim Malik, had offered them a bribe to throw a Test match between Australia and Pakistan, something Malik always denied.

Warne has repeated the allegations in his recent auto- biography.

The Pakistan authorities asked Warne and May to go to Pakistan to give evidence, but when they refused, they held their own inquiry and cleared Malik.

However, since then, there have been a number of allegations about match-fixing on the subcontinent, and in June this year, the former Indian all-rounder, Manoj Prabhakar, claimed in the Indian magazine, Outlook, that just before the India v Pakistan match in Sri Lanka, in 1994, he was offered 2.5 million rupees (about -L42,000) by an Indian associate "to play below my usual standards".

Prabhakar said: "I told him to get out of my room."

The article created a storm in India, and the Indian board appointed Mr Justice Chandrachud, the former Chief Justice of India, the highest judicial position in the country, to investigate. He has interviewed Prabhakar and several Indian cricketers. His report is due out shortly.

Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/)