IT report on five players sent, others to follow soon

The match-fixing saga continues to haunt the players. Following the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) report, the income-tax department has sent its appraisal report of five players to the income-tax commissioner and assessing officers for issuing notices to the cricketers.

IT sources said the "appraisal reports" of four of these players - Manoj Prabhakar, Ajay Sharma, Ajay Jadeja and Nikhil Chopra, based in Delhi - have been sent to an income tax commissioner, who will be assisted by two assessing officers, for speedy disposal of the cases, reports PTI. They added that the appraisal report of the fifth, Navjot Sidhu, has been sent to the Ludhiana directorate from where he would be issued notice for submission of the block returns.

On Kapil Dev, the sources said "A similar report on former skipper Kapil Dev will be completed soon and sent to the assessing officer." They added that the orders and summons to be issued to the players would be based on the appraisal reports.

On the others, namely former Indian captain Mohd. Azharuddin, former ICC chief Jagmohan Dalmiya, WorldTel's Mark Mascerenhas and BCCI treasurer Kishore Rungta, the IT sources said "The appraisal reports of other persons raided would have been completed by the respective zonal directorates and sent to assessing officers for further action."

The sources said that the report of bookies, who were also raided, will be completed by next week. Everyone will get a time of 45 days after the appraisal report to file the block IT return for 10 years.

The sources also said that the authorities had centralised the cases for players in Delhi and one income tax commissioner would be assisted by two assessing officers for speedy disposal of the cases. Meanwhile, CBI sources said it "would not act in haste" in prosecuting the two players Azharuddin and Ajay Sharma under the Prevention of Corruption Act. They also added that they would wait for the final report of the income tax authorities before initiating any action on the two cricketers as they are public servants.

Meanwhile in South Africa, in trying to get to the core of the problem of betting and match-fixing, the King Commission in its second interim report has suggested that the phones of the South African players phones be tapped and that they be forced to take lie detector tests if the government accepts proposals tabled on Thursday by the enquiry into the country's match-fixing scandal.

Judge Edwin King in his report has included a drastic proposal on monitoring players which suggests "It is unfortunately necessary for players' telephone calls and also e-mails to be monitored. A somewhat drastic proposal is that players should contractually authorise the undergoing of a polygraph test which would be undertaken either at random or when there are grounds for suspicion present."

The judge has also recommended that the luggage and rooms of all touring players' be searched for bribes and that they should consent to taking random lie-detector tests. King said that "only cellular telephones issued to players by the UCBSA should be allowed and details of calls made and received should be available so as to allow monitoring by the UCBSA." He added that "possession of an unauthorised mobile telephone should be a punishable offence."

Hoping that some of the measures in the report would be adopted by other countries, King said he wanted to restore to cricket the culture of fair play. He also has suggested that cricketers be made aware from early on 'what is fair and what is unfair' and that their ethics education should be ongoing to counter the temptations they may face at the top of their game. "We all have the same objection, we want to kill this monster," he said.

King is set to resume the final set of public hearings into the matchfixing scandal on January 25, and release his final report by the middle of next year. King said "The hearings would take a few weeks" but declined to say whether Cronje or any cricketers would be called to testify. South African Sports Minister Ngconde Balfour reacted to the report by saying that the South African cricket authorities were not bound to implement the recommendations.

Meanwhile, reports from Islamabad indicate that the ICC anticorruption chief Sir Paul Condon has sought a meeting with former Pakistan skippers Salim Malik and Asif Iqbal in connection with the match-fixing scandal. The Pakistan Cricket Board however has informed Condon that they have no jurisdiction over Asif Iqbal and that he would have to examine Iqbal, who now lives in the United Arab Emirates, on his own initiative.

The sources said Condon had requested for the meeting with Malik to be held in Pakistan, as he was aware that since the former captain was placed on the exit control list, he could not leave the country. Malik, who is contemplating to settle in Canada, has said he would first get his name cleared before thinking of migrating.