Prabhakar disputes Chandrachud report

The BCCI, after the inquiry by the Chandrachud Commission, dismissed Prabhakar’s allegations as an outburst because of his non-inclusion in the team.

Asked if the Chandrachud inquiry was a whitewash conducted by the BCCI to hide the truth, Prabhakar said, “I don’t have to say it. Now the whole world is saying that and I have already seen many reports calling it a whitewash.”

Responding to Sports Minister SS Dhindsa’s reported statement that the government was willing to provide him with legal support if he disclosed the names of the cricketers, Prabhakar said, “I will reveal all the names. So far, I have only read the statement of the Minister in the newspapers. The government has not approached me with this offer.”

On Justice Chandrachud’s statement that Indian players were not involved in match-fixing, Prabhakar laughed and said, “How will there be any names when he did not even ask for.”

On whether he felt any of the matches in which he played were fixed, Prabhakar said, “Yes, I feel a Sharjah match in the early 90s was rigged. The match continued despite bad light. Even the street lights were on and the match continued in virtual darkness. I mentioned this in my inquiry.”

SYDNEY: Australian batsman Mark Waugh, fined for taking money from bookmakers five years ago, refused to talk about the Hansie Cronje scandal.

“I’m going home, the season’s over,” said Waugh, who declined to answer questions when he returned from South Africa where Australia’s three-match limited overs series was over-shadowed by the South African captain’s admission he accepted money from a bookmaker for “information and forecasting”.

Five years ago, Waugh and leg-spinner Shane Warne were fined a combined total of $ 18,000 (about Rs 5 lakh) after they admitted receiving cash from an Indian bookmaker for providing pitch and weather information.

Like Waugh and Warne, Cronje said he’d been “naive” although he added the word “foolish” where they’d used “stupid”.

Unlike them, he also stands accused by Indian police of the considerably more serious charge of match-fixing — something he has denied. Waugh, who has played international cricket virtually non-stop over the past two years, was in no mood to chat with the media at Sydney Airport.