Prabhakar slams BCCI, CBI
Onkar Singh
Former India allrounder Manoj Prabhakar on Friday reacted strongly to the action taken against him by the Board of Control for Cricket in India.
Talking to rediff.com Prahbakar said he "banned" cricket from his life five years ago.
"I have heard about the ban being imposed upon me and some other
players. What ban can they impose on a man who has banned cricket from
his life five years ago. The CBI report is strange. The agency has not
taken cognizance of my tapes and they have let off Kapil Dev. What have
they done with my tapes?
"Did they ask those who came to them as
witnesses what do they have to say about the testimony on the tapes?
"Why didn't they force them to give the correct picture of the
incident.
"I was supposed to inform the manager of the team about the
incident that took place in Sri Lanka in 1994 and I did that. Ravi
Shastri never told me to write a letter to the board," he said.
Asked about Dean Jones's statement that he had introduced him to Mukesh Gupta, Prabhakar said only the statements of others are being publicised and nobody is giving his
version.
But then, it seems have you been ducking the media...
"Who says that I am not meeting the press people. I am talking to you. It is unfortunate that
the CBI has believed the version of a bookie and not of a player who had
played for the country and raised this issue with the sole aim of
cleaning up the game. I am glad that the game would be clean now," he
said.
The report says that you were deeply involved in match-fixing and
you had taken money for introducing foreign players to Mukesh Gupta...
"I have never taken any money from any one nor have I fixed any match
for any bookie. I played the game to the best of my ability. I have
seen bookies sitting in the BCCI offices and talking to board officials.
I have never taken a single paisa from anyone. Who is this Mukesh
Gupta? I don't know him at all," he claimed.
Prabhakar accused the CBI of releasing the match-fixing report without taking into
account the Income Tax department's report on its raids on the premises of some cricketers and board officials.
"When the Income Tax report comes the truth will come out and the people of India will know that I am on the right side," he said.
So why are those who had supported your claims turning their backs on you?
"I think they are right when they say that they are not responsible for my past as well as future. I am
surprised that the CBI has taken print-outs of my phone calls from 1992 onwards. They have taken print-outs for 1999-2000 as well. They want to show that I have been in touch with the bookies. If some player who shares a health club with me places a bet it is not my fault. If I had been involved in match-fixing do you think I would have raised this issue," he argued.
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