NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 4: Twenty-four hours before they are expected to meet in Chennai for fixing the quantum of punishment for the players figuring in the match-fixing controversy, office-bearers of the Board for Cricket Control in India (BCCI) seemed to be in two minds.The fate of former captain Azharuddin, Ajay Jadeja, Manoj Prabhakar, Ajay Sharma and Nayan Mongia, who were all named in the Central Bureau of Investigation report for fixing matches, is to be decided.``I will be fair but strict in deciding on the punishment for the five cricketers,'' said BCCI President A.C.Muthiah. ``I have the authority and will not be cowed (down).''But Secretary Jaywant Lele told a TV channel that the evidence so far was circumstantial. ``The only thing that has been proved is that some players have links with bookies. They talk on the phone with them. Even the players concerned have accepted this. But they say talking with bookies does not mean they have accepted money,'' Lele, who had been very sceptical about even Hansie Cronje's guilt to begin with, said.``The Board can only suspend guilty players,'' Lele said. ``If it (match-fixing) is proved then the only thing that we can do is to suspend them from cricket or cricketing engagements or not give them benefit matches.''But Vice-President Kamal Morarka, who is a member of the Board's disciplinary committee, is opposed to any penalty being imposed on the players that's ``disproportionate'' to the evidence found against them.He said on phone from Mumbai that before deciding the penalty for any erring player, the committee must weigh the fact that the player would have recourse to legal remedy if it was disproportionate.He also clarified that he was not particularly concerned about defending Ajay Jadeja, as mentioned in a section of the media, but about the larger issue of ensuring justice. ``The board owes it to itself to see that there is fairness in its actions,'' said Morarka.After emerging from the meeting of the disciplinary committee, headed by Muthiah, in Delhi last week, Morarka had stunned reporters by saying ``there is more corruption in the CBI than in cricket''.At the Board's special general body meeting in Calcutta the following day, he was quite vocal in his demand that a lenient view be taken while handing out punishment to the guilty players.``Where is the need for us to give severe punishments based only on suspicion while the other boards have let off their players with milder sentences,'' Morarka added.
