CBI to examine Bindra on his report

According to Bindra, he has already received a questionnaire based on his report and was preparing a written reply for it. CBI refused to make any comment on this.

Bindra had on May 15 appeared before the CBI on his own and submitted the 360-page document after a 70-minute meeting with the investigators. In his report, he is understood to have raised issues of TV rights of cricket matches since 1996 and about the alleged illegalities in matches played in Sharjah, Singapore and Toronto.

The CBI has so far questioned four people, including former India manager Sunil Dev.

Also on cards is the questioning of former India all-rounder Manoj Prabhakar who set the ball rolling with his sensational allegation about three years ago that a senior member of the team had offered him money to play below potential in a Singer Cup match in Sri Lanka IN 1994.

Though the questoning of Prabhakar was a certainty, the date of his deposition before the country’s premier investigating agency was yet to be decided.

Prabhakar had caused ripples three years back with his disclosure that he was offered money by a senior teammate to play below potential during the 1994 Singer Cup in Sri Lanka.

The CBI is probing the involvement of present and past cricketers, administrators and officials in match-fixing, betting and any other malpractices in Indian cricket. The probe was handed over to the investigating agency by the Government in April end and the inquiry was initiated on May two.

The content of the Bindra’s report still remained a mystery. While he refused to make any comment on it saying that it was before the CBI, the agency has so far refused to provide any detail saying that it was still going through it.

Bindra has, however, hinted that his report generally dealt with the incidence of “special favour” given to TV companies while selling coverage rights and mushrooming of “masala” (exhibition) and “thaila” (money raising) matches in the off shore countries, which have been the cause of degradation of cricket.

During his interactions with the media, Bindra had time and again claimed that almost all players, officials and administrators linked to the game were involved in the malpractice. He went to the extent of saying that every match in the international level is today fixed and all international players indulge in the activity.

Bindra recently threw a bombshell by claiming that Prabhakar had confided in him that country’s leading wicket taker and present Indian coach Kapil Dev was the senior player who had offerred him money to play poorly during the Singer Cup match.

Though Prabhakar had so far refrained from naming any player saying he had no legal protection in the absence of evidence, he promised to provide information to any investigating agency, if they contact him.

It was his allegations which forced the BCCI to institute the Justice YV Chandrachud committee on match-fixing. The report of the committee was presented in Parliament earlier this month, almost two-and-a-half years after it was submitted to the Board.

The allegations of match-fixing and betting became pronounced since first week of April after the sensational disclosure by the Delhi police that the now sacked South African captain Hansie Cronje and some of his teammates were involved in rigging matches of the one-day series against India played in March.

Apart from the CBI, Delhi police is inquiring the FIR No 111/2000 against Hansie Cronje, three of his teammates — Herschelle Gibbs, Nicky Boje and Pieter Strydom, and two alleged bookies Sanjay Chawla, who is the prime accused in the case, and Rajesh Kalra, who is under custody. Music baron Kishen Kumar has also been charged for his involvement in the case.