Finger of suspicion becomes firmer

First there were just baseless charges and allegations and counter allegations. Then the finger of suspicion became more firm. Now the Income Tax raids on prominent cricketers, officials and bookies have made it very difficult for those cornered to get out. It is a pretty tight net that the authorities have been throwing.

The country wide operations concluded on Friday but there is no guarantee that there won't be more raids. Questions are already being asked as to how and from where the once cricketing icons got all the money and the needle of suspicion is hovering towards one conclusion. Indian cricket has seen dark days in the past but surely the clouds have not been so inky dark as they are now.

If the present time is difficult for those involved the future holds out little hope of the noose around their neck loosening. For there is little doubt that the raids will strengthen the case of the CBI, which is probing the match-fixing case, at the prosecution stage. The feeling is that the findings will also help the CBI probe the matter in a coordinated and concerted manner. CBI sources said ``the raids will certainly help us in cracking down on the culprits and will strengthen our hands during investigations and at the prosecution stage.''

Realising that it would be difficult for it alone to get to the bottom of the scandal, the CBI, soon after the case was handed over to it in May, had requested the IT Department to probe the financial transactions and dealings and banking accounts of certain cricketers and officials during the past 10 years.

It is learnt that the IT Department, before carrying out the raids, had taken the CBI into confidence. The CBI responded by associating itself with the raids in Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

If things are not going well for the players, the scenario could not be worse for the Board of Control for Cricket in India. It was dealt with another severe blow with the government issuing a warning that it would not hesitate to interfere in its working to set things right in the wake of the match-fixing scandal.

``The Board should not think that the government cannot interfere in its working even if it commits mistakes,'' Sports Minister Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa said in New Delhi. Dhindsa has already issued stern warnings along the same lines to the BCCI and its autonomy has never been more vulnerable.

Dhindsa again said that Md Azharuddin, Ajay Jadeja, Nayan Mongia and Kapil Dev should on moral grounds, dissociate themselves from the Indian team and wait for the outcome of the inquiry. As if all this was not enough, the Minister of State for Sports Syed Shahnawaz Hussain hinted that incriminating documents had been seized during the raids and that nobody would be forgiven. He however added that the government did not want to harass anyone needlessly.

``Till date we have not interfered but if required we will. The Government will do its duty in the wake of the scandal which has outraged every single cricket lover,'' Dhindsa said.

On BCCI secretary Jaywant Lele's claim that the government action in the issue could amount to interference in the board's work, Dhindsa said ``the government has not yet interfered.''

Much of course now depends on the meeting the BCCI officials are scheduled to have with Dhindsa on August one when they would present both the Vision Report on the working of the BCCI and the new code of conduct for players and officials.

On the IT raids, Dhindsa said these were carried out as the department must have had proof.

Dhindsa reiterated his earlier stand that if the players, involved in the scandal, came forward and confessed to the crime, a lenient view would be taken. ``If they had confessed, like sacked South African captain Hansie Cronje, it would have been over by now,'' Dhindsa said.

Some good news for the beleaguered board however came with Dhindsa's statement that the government supported the BCCI's Code of Conduct, particularly the clause which calls for a life ban. ``I will support a code of conduct which imposes a life ban on a player found guilty of match-fixing charges.'' But then he added a corollary which put the board back on the defensive. ``If the government finds the code lacking in any manner, it will definitely ask the board to improve upon it or change it.''

The players who were in India during the raids put on a brave front, Kapil Dev said all help should be provided to the IT sleuths in carrying out their job. "Let the government agencies do their job. We should all help them," Kapil Dev told reporters in his first comments since the searches began on Thursday.

Manoj Prabhakar, who triggered off the match-fixing controversy in the country, justified the IT raids, saying it was good for the game.

"Now onwards, people should realise that CBI and IT people are doing their job sincerely to clean the system," Prabhakar said in New Delhi. On searches in his own home yesterday, the all-rounder said "I have nothing to hide, nothing to declare".

The former Indian all rounder said the investigators went to his house at 8 am and during their 12-hour operation went through various papers and documents and asked questions about some of them to which he gave the answers.

Md Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja who are abroad, are cutting short their foreign trips and are expected back at any time. Hard times are ahead of them.

Not satisfied with targeting cricketers and officials, the government has also earmarked WorldTel chief Mark Mascarenhas for the treatment. The Minister of State for Finance, Dhananjay Kumar, while briefing the media on the IT raids said Mascarenhas is one of the two bigger bookies going around at the moment. He said, "The two of the bigger bookies have been identified, and one of them is Mark Mascarenhas." Mascarenhas of course has denied any involvement in match-fixing. He threatened to take legal action, but at the same time, assured his full co-operation to the IT officials.

In the meantime, the president of the Indian Hockey Federation, KPS Gill, stated that developments in the cricketing world have been completely mishandled.

Referring to the raids conducted by IT department on the premises of various cricketers and BCCI officials he said that this is not the way sportspersons should be treated. "It could have been done in a much better way." He suggested that the exercise could have been carried out "quietly.''

The former Punjab DGP said that many of the big earners avoid taxes and then ask for amnesty from receptive bodies. "This is an old exercise in the country. Certain things like having the police posted outside their houses is totally uncalled for." he pointed.

Meanwhile, in Durban, the South African Department of Foreign Affairs said it had not yet received any request by the Indian government for the extradition of Hansie Cronje.

A foreign affairs department spokesman said even if such a request was made, the matter would be handed over the South African President Thabo Mbeki for his personal attention. ``In the final analysis it will be the president who will have to make the final decision,'' he said.