NEW DELHI, JUNE 10: The Central Bureau of Investigations is examining the role played by some of the major bookies during the recently concluded Asia Cup matches held in Dhaka.While not specifying whether only the matches played by India were watched, sources said the networking of the bookies was under close scrutiny to identify the crucial conduits and point persons.``We have been chasing the big bookies in the match-fixing case,'' says a highly-placed source in the CBI. ``Though there is enough information, mostly unconfirmed, on how the fixing is done, there was nothing to give us an idea about an international event where such a thing is possible,'' he says. ``That way the Asia Cup had come at an opportune time for the investigation,'' he adds.India had failed to make it to the finals of the championship which was won by Pakistan. This comes in the wake of allegations against the Indian coach Kapil Dev by former team mate Manoj Prabhakar of bribing him for playing below potential in 1994.``We are not keeping our investigations to only one player or person,'' the agency source says, adding, ``the tapes given by Prabhakar only help us in seeking information from some of the key people like Ajit Wadekar and Navjot Singh Sidhu who had earlier denied any knowledge about any kind of match-fixing.''``But during Asia Cup, our aim was not just watching the Indian team. We were following very closely how the system operates,'' says the senior official.The Asia Cup championship had also given a chance to the investigators to check on the validity of various statements that they had recorded from former players and administrators.While the tournament started only a fortnight back, the watch had begun much before. ``We were particularly after the procedure that the bookies follow so that we can identify the vital links and point persons in each administration and playing team of all the countries that were participating,'' a source points out.One of the hurdles the agency faced was the bookies were not as active as they apparently were before. They seemed to have turned cautious in the aftermath of the findings of the match-fixing scandal involving the South African skipper Hansie Cronje.``The situation was slightly sensitive with everyone wary of various investigating agencies prowling the place. But we think we got what we wanted,'' says the official.Meanwhile, after scrutinising the 40-hour video tapes of Manoj Prabhakar's conversation with various former team mates and senior players, the agency may soon examine Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri, Nayan Mongia and Kiran More, besides Wadekar and Sidhu.
