Match-fixing scandal: Ministers, IT officials criticised

When a controversy reaches a stage when there is friction between the Ministers in the Central government, it can justifiably be said that it has reached disturbing proportions nationwide. And going by certain developments on Monday, there was confirmation that the match fixing scandal, if anything, is getting more alarming in its impact.

The National Democratic Alliance Central government is led by the BJP, which is supported by several parties. Among them is the Samata Party. And the first signs of dissent on the issue became clear when Samata Party president Jaya Jaitley criticised the Ministers of the Atal Behari Vajpayee Government, asking them to refrain from making comments which could derail a fair investigation into the match-fixing case. At the same time, she charged the income tax officials with spreading `lies' and demanding `bribes'.

Jaitley was referring to the recent statements made by Minister of State for Finance Dhananjay Kumar and Sports Minister Sukhbir Singh Dhindsa. While Kumar had, soon after the IT raids on cricketers' premises, told the press that ``clinching evidence was available to prove the nexus between cricketers and bookies'', Dhindsa had said a junior cricketer in the country was worth about Rs 10 crores and a senior cricketer about Rs 200 crores.

Joining issue with Kumar and Dhindsa, Jaitley told reporters, ``how could these Ministers make such comments when the probe into the matter was not yet over and was likely to take about two months. Will not these statements derail a fair probe?'' She accused both Dhindsa and Kumar of making "irresponsible statements" to the press.

In a scathing attack which she launched against the IT department, Jaitley charged it of feeding the media with `stories' on the recent raids against cricketers, including Ajay Jadeja in whose firm her daughter Aditi is employed. She claimed that she held no brief for Jadeja but she felt that he was being unfairly victimised. She added that Jadeja was a childhood friend of her children and she happened to believe that he was above all controversy. She said Jadeja did not hold properties as claimed by the IT department.

Jaitley termed the contents of these `stories' as `lies'. She said as a public person it was her duty to ensure that the government agencies work honestly and do not exceed their brief which results in either denigration or defamation of a person before the investigation findings were available.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for its part has faced many embarrassing moments since the match fixing scandal broke out. The latest in a long line of such moments came about on Monday. The board has always taken pride in the fact that it is an autonomous body, not dictated to by the government. This line of thinking has taken quite a beating over the last few months. On Monday, the latest blow to its autonomous claims was struck when the BCCI decided to enforce the new code of conduct for players only after getting approval from the Government.

In Mumbai, after the first meeting of the special committee, formed by the board, its convenor Kishore Rungta told reporters ``the draft of the code will be submitted to Sports Minister Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa on August 1 and once the Minister approves the draft, we will implement it in the very next series India takes part. There is nothing much I can tell you at the moment as the committee would be meeting again in Delhi on July 30 before the draft was submitted to the Minister on August 1,'' he added.

``The draft will be discussed at the Delhi meeting and its contents and the changes, if any, would be disclosed to the press by the Minister,'' Rungta said. After this episode, autonomy is one subject which should be taboo for board officials.

In a related development, Dhindsa said that the office-bearers of the BCCI would convene in the Capital on August 1 to deliver a `code of conduct' to the players.

``We do not want to interfere in the game. But we cannot remain a silent spectator either. Some of the sports bodies are fudging records, age and indulging in all sorts of malpractices. Since they represent India, the government is a facilitator and watchdog. They must have a code of conduct. I am planning to consult the players and others to appoint watchdog bodies about their performances,'' he added.

Meanwhile, in a synchronised operation, IT officials, helped by CBI sleuths, on Tuesday began scrutiny of documents seized from premises of cricketers, administrators and bookies and would open their sealed bank lockers later in the day.

Sleuths of the CBI are assisting the IT department in examining the documents whether any of the seized papers had relevance to the match-fixing controversy.

A report from Mumbai said IT officials there have begun scrutiny of documents seized following raids on ten premises of cricketers, their close relatives, administrators, bookies and those connected with the game, Director General (Investigations) PK Sarma said.

CBI sources in New Delhi said the agency was closely examining the bank accounts of jeweller Mukesh Gupta, whom Hansie Cronje alleged was the man who offered him money to throw a Test match in 1996.

The process of opening bank lockers sealed during the massive searches conducted by the IT authorities at the premises of top cricketers, administrators and bookies, scheduled to begin on Monday, was deferred to Tuesday.

IT sources said that Monday being the first working day after the two-day searches that concluded on Saturday, the department had decided to give one more day to the people whose lockers had been sealed to enable them to co-operate with the tax authorities.

The sources said besides this, some of the cricketers were out of the country when the raids took place and the unlocking of their lockers would be done in their presence in phases.

In the meantime, the latest player to admit that he has received an offer from bookmakers during his international playing days is the former South African skipper Clive Rice.

In an e-mail sent from England to the King Commission, probing the Hansie Cronje match-fixing scandal, Rice, who led the side after South Africa was re-admitted to international cricket in 1991 spoke of at least one offer from the bookies to provide information for money. But he claimed he rejected it. Rice incidentally led the South African team on its historic comeback tour of India in 1991-92.

"We have received information from Clive Rice and he will be talking to investigators," the report quoted John Bacon, secretary of the commission of inquiry into cricket corruption headed by Judge Edwin King, as saying.

The Commission, which is scheduled to release an interim report on August 11 and will hold further public hearings from October 2, will be soon contacting Rice to get details on the approaches allegedly made to him, he said.

The latest revelation from Rice, currently chief executive officer of Nottingamshire, has forced the King Commission to broaden the scope of its inquiry and include incidents that may have occurred before 1995, a South African news agency reported on Monday.

Meanwhile, reports from London indicate that Scotland Yard sleuths, investigating allegations of match-fixing, are due to fly to India again. They have been focussing on the alleged attempts to fix the results of matches played in England during the World Cup and a few other Test series.

Three persons had been arrested last month in connection with allegations by the former England Tets player, Chris Lewis, that he had been approached to help fix a Test match between England and New Zealand by recruiting a few English cricketers.