Rumblings in BCCI over Nasir's remarks

The Board of Control for Cricket in India is not traditionally known for quick responses to charges made against various aspects of the game in this country. But the statements of the manager of the Pakistan team in Sri Lanka, Brig. Md Nasir in Colombo on Monday were so outrageous that the rumblings were felt immediately in BCCI circles. There was no immediate reaction by the BCCI president AC Muthiah or the secretary JY Lele but the general feeling was that the official should be put in his place.

Cricket circles in the country have been disappointed by Md Nasir's unwarranted outbursts. It is felt that he had no business making such baseless and sweeping statements and should have concentrated on his managerial duties. Moreover, the timing was very wrong, for there has been considerable progress in recent days towards India making a tour of Pakistan in the 2000-2001 season. Brig. Nasir's irresponsible comments are not going to be helpful in this regard.

Obviously the ripples will get wider over the next few days and Muthiah, who is currently in Varanasi, is expected to write to his counterpart, Lt Gen Tauqir Zia in this regard on Thursday.

Manoj Prabhakar was again in the news on Tuesday. The special crime branch of the CBI probing the match fixing scandal, summoned Prabhakar and questioned him for nearly 2-1/2 hours at the agency's headquarters in New Delhi. Prabhakar was summoned for the first time after he submitted videotapes to the agency containing conversations of players and administrators about match fixing.

CBI sources indicated that Prabhakar was confronted with the versions of those appeared on his tapes and who were questioned by the CBI. The agency has questioned a number of former and current players and administrators who had appeared in the video tapes to verify if they corroborated the contents of the tapes which run into some nine hours. The CBI has already questioned former coach Ajit Wadekar and former opening batsman Navjot Sidhu twice besides stumper Nayan Mongia, former captain Md Azharuddin, former medium pace bowler Prashant Vaidya and the former physio of the Indian team Ali Irani. But all this has resulted in a bit of a road block for the investigation agency as all the four are believed to have denied the authenticity of the taped conversations. Vaidya has even gone to the extent of saying that the tapes are `doctored'.

Meanwhile, the Income Tax department said in New Delhi that it was in the process of ascertaining the payments received by the Indian cricketers in the last ten years. According to a source in the IT department, the BCCI has been asked to submit a detailed account of payments made to cricketers who represented India in Tests and one day internationals since the 1991-92 season. India have played 263 ODI's and 65 Tests since October 1991.