Kapil meets Madhavan after playing hide and seek with media

After playing hide and seek with the media, all rounder Kapil Dev on Wednesday appeared before the Board of Control for Cricket in India's anti corruption commissioner K Madhavan at an undisclosed venue in New Delhi in connection with the BCCI's internal inquiry into match-fixing and betting in the game.

Kapil Dev's statement, running into 15 pages, at the session was "not much different" from what the former captain has already told the CBI but contained "some new facts, additions and minor amendments", Madhavan told reporters on Wednesday.

Madhavan said he questioned Kapil Dev for three and a half hours on all matters including his former teammate Manoj Prabhakar's allegations of offering him Rs 25 lakh for underperforming in 1994 and the controversial decision not to impose the follow-on against New Zealand in the Ahmedabad Test in 1999 when he was the coach.

"We looked into all the facts that have been mentioned in the CBI report without exception," Madhavan said.

The former CBI officer said Kapil Dev freely expressed his views and he was very satisfied with the session.

Asked whether he planned to summon any other cricketer, Madhavan said, "in the next four or five days, I will make an assessment and decide whether any further inquiry is required. If so, I will summon the concerned players," he said and added he hoped to submit his final report to the Board "within two-three weeks".

Madhavan said the secrecy about the venue was requested for by Kapil Dev who did not want to meet the media.

"Till last evening even I was not sure whether we were going to meet. It was decided only this morning and Kapil was ready to come only on the condition that media does not come to know about it," he said while apologising for the inconvenience caused to the journalists. "I had to comply with his wishes," he said.

Asked whether he had reached the bottom of the malaise, Madhavan said, "I think I am swimming somewhere in the middle. Let me see when I reach the bottom."

Madhavan however expressed his inability in summoning Mukesh Gupta, a bookie named in CBI report, saying he could question only those persons who were answerable to the Board. "Unless he (Gupta) agrees to meet me, I do not have legal powers to examine him. I want to examine two or three more individuals but it depends on them whether they agree to it or not," he said.

Madhavan sought to clarify that the deposition of former captain and coach Ajit Wadekar, who appeared before him on Monday, was in no way intended to malign him ahead of the Mumbai Cricket Association elections where Wadekar is contesting the post of president.