Serious action will be taken against the guilty, reiterates Muthiah

Refuting suggestions that the Board of Control for Cricket in India was adopting a wishy washy stance towards cricketers found guilty in the match fixing case, the BCCI president AC Muthiah on Saturday reiterated that there was no change in the stand. ``Serious action will be taken against those found guilty,'' he told reporters in Chennai at a press conference called to announce the release of the report submitted by the Board's anti corruption commissioner K Madhavan.

Answering questions after receiving the report from Madhavan, he said that Board's disciplinary committee (consisting of Muthiah and BCCI vice presidents Kamal Morarka and H Ramprasad) would meet in Calcutta on November 28 and ``under our own Code of Conduct, we can take action.'' He did not spell out the course of action, but said that considering the importance of the case, the recommendations made in Madhavan's report and the decision taken by the disciplinary committee would be placed before the special general body meeting of the board to be held at Calcutta on November 29. He said the five tainted players would be asked to appear before the disciplinary committee and present their viewpoints. While this was not binding on the players, ``it will be in their best interests if they make an appearance,'' said Madhavan who also answered queries from reporters. The anti corruption commissioner also clarified that the players could challenge the decision of the disciplinary committee in a civil court.

Tracing the background of the match fixing episode, Muthiah said after a meeting with the then Indian Sports Minister SS Dhindsa the BCCI decided to hand over the case to the CBI, ``since it was the best method to follow.'' About this time, the ICC formed an anti corruption body and suggested that other countries too follow suit. ``We appointed Madhavan and he has now given us his findings. He has done a thorough job, being an expert in the field. A lot of strenuous work has been put into his detailed report. I can't give you details about the report, for the simple reason that I have not seen it, having just received it. We will make it public after the special general body meeting on November 29,'' said Muthiah.

On his part, Madhavan clarified that his report was recommendatory in nature. ``Only the BCCI can issue the punishments,'' he said. He added it would not be right to disclose the contents of the report now for it would constitute `serious impropriety.' Saying that he was happy with his report, ``being satisfied with having looked into every aspect of the case,'' Madhavan said the last word on the report would be the BCCI's.

Madhavan said that he would meet board officials on Sunday and submit his report on the observations made by the CBI against some aspects of the functioning of the BCCI. He would submit that report on November 27. He said ``90 per cent of the work has been completed and the remaining ten percent pertaining to the CBI allegations on the working of the BCCI will be handed over to the Board within two days.'' While admitting that the CBI had been critical about some aspects of the Board's functioning, Madhavan said the CBI had never accused the board officials of match fixing. ``Supervisory negligence is different from committing the crime itself. The two have nothing to do with each other,'' he said. He added the huge report contains three volumes which consist of statements made by the players, some aspects of the CBI report, some fresh evidence and his own observations. Totally the report runs into 340 pages.