CBI to further help ICC in match-fixing scandal

In a follow up to the betting and match-fixing scandal, the CBI has decided to provide further assistance to the International Cricket Council to unravel the entire ramifications of the menace.

A CBI team, which was recently in London, met the Anti-Corruption head of the world cricket body, Paul Condon, and discussed "certain things of mutual interest," official sources said in New Delhi today. They said the ICC has shown great interest in "picking up the threads" from the CBI investigations in the case of nine foreign players named by various Indian bookies.

The CBI, in its 162-page report had named nine foreign players, who had either been named or had allegedly accepted money from Indian bookies. The agency had clarified in the report that the probe against the foriegn players could not be completed as it was beyond its jurisdiction.

The sources said the ICC had assured the CBI that almost all cricket boards of the countries, whose players have been named in the report, were probing the role of these players at their end and the world cricket body was constantly monitoring the developments.

The CBI also shared some more information about the bookies questioned by it during the six-month long investigations into the case, the sources said.

The ICC has sought addresses and telephone numbers of some Mumbaibased bookies which the agency has agreed to provide, the sources said.

In particular, the ICC has asked about the addresses of two Mumbaibased bookies, who have allegedly been involved with cricketers of Pakistan and Sri Lanka, the sources added.

The ICC has also furnished to the CBI some names, which have come up during the apex cricket body's probe into the scandal, for locating their whereabouts and the agency has assured necessary help in the case, the sources said.

They said the probe could be completed only with assistance from the international organisations like ICC and other countries. The sources said that sleuths of Special Crime Branch had made some headway into the investigations into the nexus and preliminary reports indicated that some bookies were acting at the behest of underworld mafia in fixing cricket matches. They said the accounts and other important books of bookies had been scrutinised but added this was a wide area and needed a detailed investigation before fixing responsibilities.