VARIOUS: FORMER INDIAN CAPTAIN MOHAMMAD AZHARUDDIN AND SEVERAL INTERNATIONAL CRICKETERS NAMED IN REPORT FILED BY FEDERAL INVESTIGATORS INTO MATCH-FIXING

Record ID: 492626

  • Title: VARIOUS: FORMER INDIAN CAPTAIN MOHAMMAD AZHARUDDIN AND SEVERAL INTERNATIONAL CRICKETERS NAMED IN REPORT FILED BY FEDERAL INVESTIGATORS INTO MATCH-FIXING
  • Date: 1st November 2000
  • Summary: GEORGE, SOUTH AFRICA (OCTOBER 7, 2000) (REUTERS) DISGRACED FORMER SOUTH AFRICAN CRICKET CAPTAIN HANSIE CRONJE AND WIFE BERTHA WITH NELSON MANDELA CRONJE
  • Embargoed: 16th November 2000 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NEW DELHI, BOMBAY, INDIA/LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM/ ADELAIDE, MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA/ GEORGE, PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA / NEW YORK CITY, UNITED STATES
  • City:
  • Country: Usa South Africa India
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVAE35OUYLHRGZ1NOVJSS6OKOSE1
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: A report filed by Indian federal investigators into match-fixing names former India captain Mohammad Azharuddin and several other international cricketers.
    Several other international players were named in connection with the biggest scandal ever to hit the game.
    "Mohammad Azharuddin has fixed matches/performance for a bookie 'M.K. Gupta' alias 'M.K.' alias 'John' and big-time punters Ajay Gupta and Associates, with the help of Ajay Jadeja and Nayan Mongia," the CBI said.
    But the 162-page report exonerated another former captain Kapil Dev, who quit as national coach last month after denying match-fixing accusations from former all-rounder Manoj Prabhakar.
    It said Azharuddin had admitted to fixing two matches, one in 1996 and another in 1997.
    Azharuddin led his country to 14 test victories between 1990 and 1998 and was captain at last year's World Cup.
    Former New Zealand captain Martin Crowe, one of those named by a key witness, bookmaker "M.K.Gupta", admitted to taking 3,000 US dollars in exchange for information for a bookmaker posing as a journalist.
    The others named, mostly based on "M.K.'s" testimony, included former England captain Alec Stewart, former Pakistan captains Salim Malik and Asif Iqbal, former Sri Lanka captains Arjuna Ranatunga and Aravinda De Silva, former West Indian captain Brian Lara, sacked South Africa captain Hansie Cronje and Australia batsmen Mark Waugh and Dean Jones.
    Stewart denied the allegations made in the report that he received money from a bookmaker.
    An England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) statement issued said Stewart had "fully cooperated" over the matter and would remain with the team now touring Pakistan.
    England are in Rawalpindi for the start of a four-day match against a Patron's XI.
    Team spokesman Andrew Walpole and Stewart, who was not playing for England on Wednesday, both refused to speak to reporters.
    But the statement read by an ECB spokesperson in London stated: "Alec Stewart has fully cooperated with the ECB over this matter and has categorically denied to Lord MacLaurin, chairman of of the ECB, and Tim Lamb, chief executive, that he has ever taken money from Mr Gupta or anyone else for providing information related to a cricket match. In fact, he denies ever knowingly having met Mr Gupta."
    The head of the International Cricket Council's anti-corruption body Sir Paul Condon said he would study an Indian match-fixing report over the next 24 hours.
    The former London Metropolitan police chief, who was appointed by the ICC in June to head the new body, said "One of the things we can do on behalf of world cricket later this year is have a meeting in London drawing together the various agencies around the world who have investigations still going.
    So Indian police, South Africans, British police, the Australian special investigator all share their ideas and anxieties together in London in the early weeks of December."
    Waugh was fined by the Australian Cricket Board in 1995 along with leg spinner Shane Warne after the pair admitted accepting money from a bookmaker for pitch reports.
    Crowe and Jones, who have both retired, denied fixing matches. Stewart denied taking money for information. A criminal investigation is expected in Sri Lanka.
    Four other Indian players were named in the report along with Azharuddin, who led his country to 14 test victories between 1990 and 1998 and captained the team in the 1999 World Cup in England.
    The CBI investigation began in May after the sacking of former South Africa captain Cronje, who was subsequently banned for life after admitting supplying information to bookmakers.
    In April, Delhi police named Cronje and three other South African players in connection with fixing matches during a one-day series in India in March.
    The CBI report said no criminal charges could be filed against those named "because of the nebulous position of law in this regard" and because it was unlikely any investigating agency could obtain sufficient legal evidence.
    However, Sports Minister Sukhdev Singh Dindsa said he had sent the report to the law ministry for its views.
    In an emotional lament at the end of its 162-page report, the investigators said:
    "The romanticism associated with the game is perhaps gone for ever.
    Increasingly, in the playing fields around the world, the music of a sweetly timed stroke is being replaced by the harsh cacophony of ringing cellphones.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2016. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register