It’s a day of reckoning for Indian cricket
NEW DELHI: As the Mudgal Committee’s report on the alleged involvement of 13 players and officials in the IPL match and spot-fixing scandal is discussed before the Supreme Court on Monday, the cricket fraternity will wait with bated breath and hope the game is resurrected from its current state of scepticism and finger pointing.
The BCCI is also waiting for the report to be made public.
“Most of the allegations we were investigating were hearsay. But there is substance in some of them. The committee has already submitted its report. Now, it is up to the Supreme Court to interpret the evidence and take whatever action it deems fit,” a member of the investigation team told HT.
“The questions the committee asked players and BCCI officials were based on information provided by persons who had been arrested or detained by the police for their alleged involvement in betting. Or they (people who deposed before the committee) were asked if they knew something about fixing. I don’t think the committee has concrete evidence,” said a top BCCI official. SATISFIED WITH WORK “We have done a satisfactory investigation. I am satisfied with my team’s work,” said Bibhuti Bhusana Mishra, deputy director general, Narcotics Control Bureau.
On May 16, the Supreme Court had asked Mishra to head the probe. The committee investigated 13 players and officials suspected to be involved in the fixing scandal. The list included ICC chairman N Srinivasan.
In its first report, the committee had declared
THE QUESTIONS THE COMMITTEE ASKED PLAYERS AND BCCI OFFICIALS WERE BASED ON INFORMATION PROVIDED BY PERSONS WHO HAD BEEN ARRESTED OR DETAINED BY THE POLICE FOR THEIR ALLEGED INVOLVEMENT IN BETTING
A TOP BCCI OFFICIAL
Srinivasan’s son-in-law, Gurunath Meiyappan, as a Chennai Super Kings official. The Mumbai Police also claimed that it had concrete evidence of Meiyappan’s betting activities during the IPL last year.
The committee took into account audio tapes provided by the Mumbai Police and also relied on recordings of a three-and-half-year-old phone conversations between persons allegedly involved in betting. The tapes were provided to the panel by a media house.
The stiff timeline was a challenge for the committee, as were the other hurdles. Identifying voices of the people allegedly involved was a challenge because the committee struggled to find people who could identify the voice samples. Before winding up the probe, the committee had also examined some star cricketers.
Mishra was assisted by senior police officers from Chennai and Mumbai. Additional Solicitor General L Nageswara Rao, advocate Nilay Dutta and Sourav Ganguly were other members of the committee.