CBI grills Jadeja but deadlock continues

After a lull for a couple of days, there was news on the match fixing front on Sunday involving India, Australia, South Africa and Pakistan. And more than three months after he became the central character in the scandal, Hansie Cronje again cornered most of the attention. In a candid interview on Channel Nine's Sixty Minutes, the former South African captain expressed the view that he had been punished enough for his role in the unhappy episode.

Cronje was of the view that he was guilty of the same offence that led to fines to Australian Test cricketers Mark Waugh and Shane Warne in 1995. He maintained that the Australians had made ``exactly'' the same mistake.

In December, 1998 the Australian Cricket Board admitted it secretly fined Waugh and Warne in February 1995 for giving what it called routine pitch and weather details to bookmakers during Australia's 1994 tour of Sri Lanka. ``They basically confessed to taking money from bookmakers and supplying information,'' Cronje said. ``And it's exactly what I did in a lot of my dealings and it is wrong.'' Asked if he sympathised with the two Australians, Cronje said ``I do and I think they will have a bit of sympathy for me.''

Cronje said he had been punished enough for his illegal dealings and that the toughest task would be to forgive himself. ``I believe I've been punished a lot over the last three months because I lost my job, I have to start all over again, a lot of damage has been caused,'' Cronje said. ``But I think one of the hardest things for me is to forgive myself for what I did. I honestly struggled to eat and to sleep, I knew I had lied to my family, to my friends, to my wife and my teammates. I couldn't find a building high enough to jump from but I really felt bad about what I did and I suppose that was the chicken way of getting away with it, to kill yourself.''

But Cronje repeated his claim that he still gave 100 per cent for South Africa, despite admitting taking money to influence matches over the last five years. ``I just feel guilty about what I did but the worst thing about all of this was that the leader and the one who really should have been the good influence was the one that caused so much trouble and that is the worst thing I could have done.''

Meanwhile, reports from London have indicated that Lt Gen Tauqeer Zia, President of the Pakistan Cricket Board, has threatened to question the appointment of Sir Paul Condon, the recently retired Metropolitan Police Commissioner, as Director and head of the anti-corruption unit of the International Cricket Council (ICC).

"When the ICC met last month, nobody pointed out to me the inquiry into the Metropolitan Police and it was only afterwards I heard about it. If Sir Paul did not come out of that inquiry clean, I want to take up the matter with the ICC," Gen Zia was quoted as saying in a British newspaper.

There was speculation in the media in London on the eve of the ICC meeting last month that Pakistan and the West Indies could object to Sir Condon's appointment because of charges against him. However, apparently no objections were raised at the meeting by either of the countries.

In a rather late reaction, Gen Zia has now objected to the seemingly unanimous decision to select Condon at the ICC meeting last month. His selection was announced by the new ICC President Malcolm Gray at a press conference at Lord's.

In India, the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, AC Muthiah denied that the government had started interfering in the board's functioning after the match-fixing scandal broke out.

``There is no interference from the government. Rightly, the government is concerned about what we plan to do and what measures we are going to take following the match-fixing allegations,'' he told a news agency.

Muthiah said the BCCI had only sought a three-month time frame for the CBI enquiry and an early submission of the report. ``Otherwise, it will have a demoralising affect on the players, including those on whom allegations have been levelled.''

Asked whether former captain Mohammed Azharuddin and current coach Kapil Dev should step down till their names were cleared in the matchfixing case, Muthiah said that BCCI cannot drop players unless they are found guilty. ``The players and coach can opt out of the team if they want to. The board does not interfere with the selection committee,'' he said.

On whether he was satisfied with the way the ICC had handled the match-fixing issue, Muthiah said it had done whatever it could according to its rules. He said that the ICC had relied on the inquiry commission reports submitted by different member countries and had referred them to Lord Griffiths, chairman of the code of conduct commission.

In New Delhi, Indian all rounder Ajay Jadeja deposed before the CBI and recorded his statement in connection with the match-fixing scandal. Jadeja, who returned recently from abroad, arrived at CBI headquarters in the afternoon and was grilled by sleuths of special crime branch for nearly two hours, according to agency sources.

Jadeja, who has led India in a few one day matches, was in the thick of controversy following reports of an alleged nexus between cricketers and bookies to fix matches. While it was not immediately clear what he had told the investigators, the sources indicated the deadlock in the case continued.

The CBI will soon summon former captain Ravi Shastri who had claimed that Manoj Prabhakar had told him that Kapil Dev offered him (Prabhakar) money to underperform in a one-day match in 1994. Kapil has denied the charge made by Prabhakar. Incidentally, Jadeja is the seventh cricketer to be questioned by CBI in connection with matchfixing probe after Navjot Singh Sidhu, Prashant Vaidya, Prabhakar, Nayan Mongia, Mohd Azharuddin and Nikhil Chopra.