They rise to Kapil's defence

Manoj Prabhakar may have named Kapil Dev as the man who offered him a 25 lakh bribe for throwing a match against Pakistan in the Singer Cup in Colombo in 1994. However, most of the former and present cricketers of the country present in Calcutta are not willing to belive him.

In an interview to a Bengali TV channel here on Thursday, both Sourav Ganguly and the President of the International Cricket Council Jagmohan Dalmiya said that Prabhakar's allegation had no meaning to them. Ganguly said, "What is an allegation without proof. It has no meaning to me. It is useless to raise a complaint without proving its validity. I do not believe anything that has been said about Kapil Dev."

Dalmiya said "there are some cricketing legends in our country. People like Sunil Gavaskar, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, Venkatraghavan and Kapil Dev. It is they who make the game great. Let us say that three months from now, if Kapil is proved not guilty, then will the people who are raising the allegations be able to give him back the prestige that he has lost."

Kapil's best friend Ashok Malhotra once more made it clear that Prabhakar's allegation had no meaning to him. "If you doubt Kapil's credibility, you lose your faith in the game. So how can you really believe Prabhakar. Moreover, I know Prabhakar very well. I have played with him. I do not want to elaborate right now, but I know what kind of a person he is. That is why I have no faith in the allegation that he has raised.''