Once a child of destiny, now a victim of fate

"If you create an act, you create a habit. If you create a habit, you create a character. If you create a character, you create a destiny," said Andre Maurois. This player preferred to be called the child of destiny. He attributed his success, failures and many of his comebacks to fate. His biographer Harsha Bhogle wrote that 'whatever is in your muqaddar (fate) it will happen.' This is precisely what has happened to the man named Mohammed Azharuddin. Having made a sensational entry into the game of cricket with three successive hundreds, he went on to become one of India's most successful captains. But the rest as they say is history, for he may have also made a dramatic exit too. Or has he?

Ever since talk on match-fixing circulated in print, Azhar's name has been making the rounds one way or other. But the final death blow came when the stylish right-hander was named as one of the players involved in match fixing in the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) interim report. But since then, there has been neither denial nor acceptance from the Hyderabadi player while the others named have issued a statement denying their involvement in the scandal. The question one would like to ask is, will he open a fresh can of worms in front of the BCCI's anti-corruption commissioner Madhavan in two days time? And if he does, it may prove explosive. This only time will tell. But if one looks back at the statements made by the former Indian captain before the Chandrachud Commission and the CBI recently, there are lots of discrepancies. While he categorically denied before Justice Chandrachud that match-fixing existed in the game, he admitted having fixed two games to the CBI.

Azhar told the Chandrachud Commission that "I do not think that any match can be fixed. It has taken me 14 long years to build up some reputation as a player. I cannot think of destroying it by playing badly with a deliberate motive." He added "It is true that I dress well. I also like to live in a good style. I have a house in Hyderabad and a flat in Bombay. My accounts are quite clear. The tax authorities are the best judges of that. I do not know if there is betting in cricket, but I know this for certain that none of my teammates bets."

In his deposition in front of the premier investigation agency in July. Azhar made a remarkable turnaround. The CBI report quotes Azhar as having admitted that he was first introduced to M.K. Gupta or MK by Ajay Sharma sometime in 1995, at Hotel Taj Palace, New Delhi. Ajay Sharma and MK had been approaching him to underperform in some matches for a consideration.

It also says that Azhar accepted that he had taken money on some occasions from MK but did not underperform in most of the matches in which he had taken money. He stated that the Titan Cup match between India and South Africa at Rajkot in 1996 was fixed through MK, and revealed that Ajay Jadeja and Nayan Mongia were also involved along with him. A match in the Pepsi Asia Cup in Sri Lanka in 1997 was also fixed through MK. He accepted that he had introduced MK to Hansie Cronje at Kanpur in 1996.

In his statement he also said that Ajay Gupta and his associates had approached him to fix matches but does not remember how much money he received from them. The Pepsi Cup match between India and Pakistan at Jaipur in 1999 was fixed through them and Jadeja and Nayan Mongia were also involved with him in the deal. He was paid around Rs.10 lakhs after that match by some unknown person on behalf of Gupta.

Earlier, he had reacted strongly when the former South African captain Hansie Cronje told the King Commission that Azhar had introduced him to bookie Mukesh Gupta. Azhar had called Cronje a racist then. He also claimed that he was targeted by some Indian players because he belonged to the minority community. A remark that created a furore which subsequently subsided after an apology from the player. On the way to Dhaka to play the Asia Cup, the last time he may have represented the country, Azhar dropped a piece of paper from the bus saying, I'm clean, clean and clean.

But having been named in the report, it is unlikely that the 38-year-old player can make a comeback into any form of cricket. He is stained beyond doubt. Unless fate proves otherwise. Azhar needs just one Test to make history again for he would then complete playing one hundred Test matches for the country. But he would also make history if he does not, by becoming the only player to have played 99 Test matches and also the second player in the history of the game to have scored a hundred in his first and last Test innings.

Finally, Azharuddin may have to remember that "Men at some time are masters of their fates: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings," as William Shakespeare said in Julius Caesar, i,2.