Bindra offers to provide "information" to CBI

Former president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Inderjit Singh Bindra, in a letter written to RK Raghvan, Director of the CBI, offered to provide " hard and reliable information on the issue of match-fixing in cricket." This letter was sent to the CBI Director on May 9 after Bindra returned from London to Chandigarh.

Bindra went to London and offered to provide similar information to the International Cricket Council (ICC) on this issue but was denied permission to do so. In the letter he told the CBI that he needs a week to ten days time to collect all the information which will prove highly beneficial to the CBI in investigation.

Reacting on the attitude of the ICC in not allowing him to present his information at the meeting in London, he said it was obvious that the Council had "something to hide". Now he would give to the CBI "hard and reliable information" and it is the job of the investigating team to collect the necessary evidence.

Bindra, who is President of the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) said that his fight against match-fixing was for a cause and not against any individual. He refused to be drawn into any discussuion on the issue of Kapil Dev having offered money to Prabhakar to play below his potential in the Singer Cup in 1994 but admitted that he had received a notice from Kapil Dev's lawyer in which he had asked him for an apology and withdrawal of the remark he had made against the Indian coach. He added that his lawyers would be sending a reply to the notice in due course of time.

He reiterated that it was Prabhakar who had revealed Kapil Dev's name to him while the latter was in Chandigarh on April 22. "The BCCI had never sought from Prabhakar the name of the player who had offered money to him and it was for this reason Prabhakar never revealed the name to any one" Bindra said and added "let Prabhakar deny that he did not make such a disclosure to me."

He also reiterated that the BCCI sould not permit the national squad to play 'masala' matches or offshore cricket, be it in Sharjah, Singapore, Toronto or Bangladesh. Taking full responsibility for the matches played at Toronto, which were started when he was the board president, Bindra was of the firm view that the players had no motivation to play there and it was only the middlemen who made money from such matches. He, however added that regular cricketing ties with full members of the ICC should not be stopped.