I’m clean, it’s CBI that fixed — Jadeja

Jadeja is the first of the five Indian cricketers accused of engaging in match-fixing by the CBI to announce his `innocence’ in a press conference. “At no time in my career have I been involved with match-fixing as defined in the CBI report,” he said at a crowded press conference at the Women’s Press Corps premises here this afternoon. The meeting was initially interrupted by a dozen Shiv Sena activists who forced the cricketer to run for cover.

Jadeja said he had been “hurt and perturbed the way he had been accused” in the CBI report and in a 15-page response sheet tried to explain each allegation made against him in the 162-page report, submitted to the government earlier this week.

“At no time in my career have I been involved with match-fixing as defined in the CBI report nor have at no time have I ever accepted money or any other form of consideration for underperforming in a cricket match, whether at domestic, international or any other level,” he said.

Suspended for 15 days by the BCCI pending further inquiries, Jadeja said he was at a loss to explain why his former captain Mohammed Azharuddin told the CBI that Jadeja and (Nayan) Mongia were involved in fixing certain matches. Azhar did not appear to have offered any evidence, he said.

While admitting that he knew some of the bookies, Jadeja said, “I was at no point of time aware of their involvement with betting and match-fixing, and have never received any money from them, in relation to match-fixing or for any other purpose.”

Denying outright that he had close relationship with any of the bookies mentioned in the CBI report, Jadeja said phone calls he received on his cellphone were what he thought to be his fans.

On the CBI report, which mentions that Jadeja received as many as 62 calls during a Test match from one bookie – Uttam Chand – Jadeja said the bookie’s statement to CBI was completely untrue. He admitted that he knew Uttam Chand as Ramesh Gupta and he considered him a fan and denied ever meeting the bookie.

“I would request the CBI or the police to make public the recordings of Rajesh Kalra’s conversations with me, as they would undoubtedly reveal the contents of the telephone conversations I am said to have had with Rajesh Kalra during the same period,” Jadeja said.

He said his relationship with Rattan Mehta was on a personal level and had nothing to do with cricket. He insisted that over 90 percent of Mehta’s calls were made to him when he was in Delhi and not playing any matches.

He said he would go and depose before the Madhavan committee set up by the BCCI to clear himself of the cloud of match-fixing charges.

Jadeja explains the bookie `links’

* I never received money through hawala channels. CBI says calls were made to me by Uttam Chand during the Guwahati and Jamshedpur matches. Neither of these cities has Airtel facilities to date. The evidence of other phone calls are equally dubious.

* I request the CBI/Police to make public recordings of Rajesh Kalra’s conversations with me. It will prove that my relationship with Kalra was above board.

* Over 90 percent of Rattan Mehta’s calls to me or mine to him have not been during any cricket matches and have instead been while I was in Delhi, when I have not been playing any matches.