Bindra dumps baby in CBI's lap

Inderjit Singh Bindra, the self appointed watchdog of Indian cricket, deposited his 360 page dossier on corruption in Indian cricket with CBI officials in New Delhi yesterday.''The report has been handed over to the CBI. It contains all information along with certain documents and it is upto the agency to assess it... I am available for further clarifications from them," he said.

Bindra, who was accompanied by Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) secretary, MP Pandove, told reporters later that "the report deals mainly with three issues: allotment of television rights from 1996 onwards, money made by middlemen, event managers and other officials from these rights, and playing of cricket in offshore (sic) countries."

For all his bluster however, he does not seem to have any dope on the real McCoy of matchfixing. Having already admitted that he had no evidence against Kapil, he declined to rise to the bait again. "This is a different issue and we will discuss it later. I have nothing more to add to what I had said in Chandigarh.''

According to Bindra, several officials succeeded in earning an 80 per cent profit from television rights although the normal trend was from 15-20 per cent. He also claimed that unreasonable amounts of money were made by players and the board by playing in 'offshore' locations like Toronto, Singapore and Sharjah but went on to admit that he himself was responsible for signing the contract for an annual tournament in Toronto.

Bindra was against India withdrawing from the Asia Cup in Dhaka later this month, "I am only against masala matches, even if they are fetching the Cricket Board good money, because all unfair practices are indulged in at these places", he said.

Meanwhile the BCCI joint secretary Jyoti Bajpai, in New Delhi, denied having mentioned corruption by players in his report as Indian manager for the Sharjah tourney in 1998, as Bindra had earlier claimed. " I categorically deny having spoken about certain players. I did not make any verbal mention as Bindra claims", he said.

In another development, the Indian team coach Kapil Dev said in Pune that he has been advised by his lawyers to refrain from speaking to the media except in matters relating to the conditioning camp for Asia Cup probables that began on May 15.