ITC pledges support to the game

It's curtains to the darkest week in Indian cricket with the end of the first round of raids conducted by the income-tax department on cricketers and officials. The assessment of the documents and other valuables seized has just begun. Even as corporate India is increasingly skeptical about continuing their association with the players as models, tobacco major ITC Ltd., one of the premier sponsors of the game in recent times, has said that it has no intention whatsoever to pull out from the game.

In its annual general meeting at Calcutta on Friday, the ITC chairman YC Deveshwar played down the match-fixing controversy. Aggrieved shareholders had raised the issue of the scandal and wanted the company to pull out of its financial commitments to the sport. In response Deveshwar said "Just because it (match-fixing controversy) happened, we are not going to pull the plug." He added "we will not abandon the game of cricket."

Clarifying ITC's stand, he said, "We only support the Indian team and not individual cricketers who represent the game." Deveshwar said if ITC Limited stopped supporting cricket in the future, it would not be for this controversy but for other reasons.

Meanwhile, former CBI director Joginder Singh, talking to the media, said that the ongoing inquiry by the premier investigation agency would take off only if the raids unearthed evidence of illegal transaction of money. "If some documents, seized during the nationwide swoop on July 20, indicate that money changed hands illegally, then CBI could prosecute the cricket players."

Singh said that the CBI has to independently prove whatever has been found during the IT raid on cricketers and bookies. "Even if the players actually admit their role in match-fixing to the income tax authorities, the CBI cannot use that confession in a court of law", he said. But Singh added that "any confession before a financial agency of the government is admissible in a court of law that is prosecuting economic crimes."

Asked why there was a delay in registering a case, Singh said the CBI needed to collect material evidence before registering a case. He said "the agency would have to wait till it receives the same from other agencies. He further quipped "the CBI cannot rush and register a case simply because of the sensitivity involved. If the agency registers a weak case, will the media spare it?"

With more time likely to be consumed by the IT department to ascertain the worth of the valuables seized, it is more of a wait and watch for all those involved, be it the players, officials, the investigative agency and the public in particular for they want to see whether their heroes remain so or go down in the list of fallen heroes.