CBI to send a team to London to probe telecast rights case

Welcoming the support from the International Cricket Council (ICC), CBI on Sunday said it would soon send a team to London to gather information from the world body on the cricket telecast rights case and other matters arising out of the match-fixing scandal.

"We would be soon sending a team to London and the support from ICC is important for us as some of their officials have also been named in two of the cases," CBI spokesman S M Khan told reporters in New Delhi.He said the agency was always in touch with the anti-corruption branch of ICC and looked forward to any support from them which was very crucial to the investigation into the telecast rights case.

CBI on November 8 registered five cases against some Doordarshan officials for allegedly cheating the Prasar Bharti of crores of rupees in award of telecast rights for cricket matches. The five cases relate to alleged bunglings in telecast rights for 1997 Independence Cup, ICC KnockOut tournament in 1998 played in Dhaka and the World Cup in 1999. CBI alleged that some officials of Doordarshan had entered into a criminal conspiracy with the Bangalorebased WorldTel and Delhi-based Stracon India and dishonestly enhanced the bid for the telecast of the tournament.

Referring to the alleged nexus between betting syndicates and underworld, the spokesman said "we are still looking into whether there is any link between match-fixing syndicate and organised crime syndicate in the country and abroad."

Former Director of CBI R K Raghavan had sought help from other state police departments and central intelligence agencies in this matter. The ICC report on match-fixing, unveiled in London on May 23, had voiced grave concern over corrupt practices in international cricket and pledged its support to CBI in probing the links between organised crime and match-fixers.

The CBI on May 4 last year registered a Preliminary Enquiry (PE) on instruction from the Union Sports Ministry. The agency later submitted a 164-page report to the then Sports Minister S S Dhindsa on October 31. The CBI hopes that the ICC's efforts would lead to further probe into the role of nine foreign players, who were not investigated by the agency.