When cricket took a beating over a match-fixing saga
Delhi Police stunned the world with a case against three South African players in 2000
The turn of the millennium evoked fears of the Y2k bug hitting computers worldwide. While that was unfounded, a virus of another kind swept through global cricket with its epicentre in India. Cricket’s image as a “gentleman’s game” took a beating when the match-fixing scandal erupted in 2000, leading to disillusionment among millions of fans and causing the game’s integrity to be questioned.
Though there was already doubt that illegal Indian bookies were trying to influence players and games, Delhi Police stunned the global game when it filed a case on April 7 against then South Africa skipper Hansie Cronje and team mates Herschelle Gibbs and Nicky Boje, charging them with cheating and criminal conspiracy.
Delhi Police was listening into the phone conversations of underworld elements when it stumbled upon a chat between Cronje and bookie Sanjeev Chawla over underperforming in ODIS in India.
The charges, and the release of a transcript of that conversation, initially angered South Africa as it pointed a finger at its sports icon in a country pushing for social transition after apartheid was abolished. The investigation took a dramatic turn after a distraught Cronje rang up then SA cricket board’s director Ali Bacher, to confess he had been “dishonest”. Cronje admitted he took thousands of dollars to influence games, though he denied he actually fixed games. He was sacked by the South Africa board.
As corruption in cricket threatened to engulf India, the sports ministry asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to conduct a probe and find if Indian players were involved.
Indian cricket was already under the scanner after outof-favour Manoj Prabhakar made a sensational claim that Kapil Dev offered him money to throw a game against Pakistan in the 1994 Singer Series in Sri Lanka. The 1983 World Cup-winning skipper denied the allegation, breaking down during a TV interview. Prabhakar also helped with a TV sting on some of his former teammates.
Events unfolded rapidly from April. Pakistan’s Justice Qayyum report, released in May, found Salim Malik and pacer Ata-ur-rehman guilty of match-fixing and recommended life bans.
The King Commission was appointed in June in South Africa. Cronje tearfully confessed to accepting huge sums of money to influence games. Gibbs testified he took $15,000 from Cronje while allrounder Jacques Kallis said he, Lance Klusener, and Mark Boucher were offered money before the 2000 Bangalore Test, which South Africa won. Cronje testified that it was Mohammad Azharuddin who introduced him to the bookie. Azhar immediately issued a denial.
The CBI probe report was released in October. It pointed to underworld involvement in cricket corruption. In conclusion, it said: “The crisis facing cricket today is very different and far more sinister than the Bodyline controversy. Cricket, as it is played at present, does not appear to be the same game played by Sir Don Bradman or what Neville Cardus wrote about.”
MA Ganapathy, superintendent, CBI Special Crimes Branch Delhi, wrote in the report: “Both inducements and threats to players are bound to increase in view of the big money involved in gambling on cricket and the entry of the underworld. Major corrective steps need to be taken...”
CBI interviewed Azharuddin, Prabhakar and Ajay Jadeja. But BCCI was left to conduct its own probe.
Cronje was banned for life — he died in 2002 cargo plane crash — while BCCI, worried about its credibility, appointed former CBI joint director, the late K Madhavan, as probe commissioner. In December, it banned Azhar and Ajay Sharma for life and Prabhakar, Ajay Jadeja and former India physio Ali Irani for five years. The CBI named many foreign players, saying they were introduced by Prabhakar to bookie Mukesh Gupta alias John who offered or paid money to them. Many boards held inquiries, but only Cronje was found guilty. The CBI exonerated Kapil Dev. The Delhi high court quashed Jadeja’s ban in January 2003. Azhar, elected as a Congress MP in 2009, petitioned the Andhra Pradesh high court, which lifted his life ban terming it “unsustainable”.