Coaches, first-class players under scanner
New Delhi, Sept. 16: The Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) has run into troubled waters with a few first-class cricketers and a couple of coaches coming under the BCCI Anti-Corruption Unit’s scanner for suspected match-fixing.
BCCI’s ACU chief Ajit Singh, however, ruled out the possibility of any international player being a suspect. The TNPL started in 2016 and features eight franchises.
“Some players have reported that they received WhatsApp messages from certain unknown people. We are trying to find out who those people are. We have recorded the statements of the players and we will try to track the senders of the messages,,” he told reporters.
“There is no international player...any player who has got the message, he is supposed to report it to us, it’s part of his obligation,” he added.
While no names have been revealed yet, allegations of match-fixing have emerged and are being
related to one particular mid-table franchise in the TNPL, which many believe has gained notoriety over the past couple of years.
“This franchise finished among the last three in the eight-team TNPL table. There are a lot of grey areas related to their ownership patterns. Their choice of players and coaches has also not been above board,” a BCCI source said.
In fact, there is one lesserknown coach, whose role could come under the scanner. The particular coach has earlier also been
involved with franchises with suspect dealings.
“Nothing can be ruled out. There is one coach, who was related with a tainted IPL franchise, later coached a Ranji team and was, for one season, related to a TNPL franchise that is under the scanner,” the BCCI source said.
There have always been questions about the credentials of this particular coach as to how he landed IPL support staff jobs as well as contracts in these state franchise league teams.