Madhavan grills Sharma, may summon other players

The Board of Control for Cricket in India's vigilance commissioner K Madhavan on Saturday said he does not rule out the possibility of summoning more cricketers in connection with the betting and match-fixing scandal in cricket.

"I might summon everyone, all players who can throw more light on the whole gamut of match-fixing besides questioning other persons who fall under the purview of the BCCI," Madhavan told reporters in Delhi on Saturday, after grilling Ajay Sharma, the last of the cricketers named by the CBI in its report on match-fixing, for four hours.

Madhavan said he will now examine the statements made by the five cricketer and administrators named in the report and submit his report to the BCCI on November 25.

"The same report will come up for discussion during the Board's meeting in Calcutta, on November 29, where they will decide on the future course of action," he added.

He, however, made it clear that the BCCI has the powers of not accepting the report in toto.

Asked whether he would be summoning players like Kapil Dev or Navjot Sidhu, who have been given a clean chit by the CBI, Madhavan said: "Let me complete the study of entire statements and reexamine the CBI report ... I do not rule out the possibility of summoning any other player."

He refused to divulge what transpired during his examination or whether he found anyone guilty of match-fixing.

"I cannot say anything on the issue as yet, because I find that I am in the seat of a judge and I cannot preempt my judgement," Madhavan added.

Madhavan said he would also be making a study of the Chandrachud Report on match-fixing but clarified that he is not going to make any recommendations to the board.

He thanked the CBI for providing him with complete statements of the players and other evidences collected by the investigating agency. "I even confronted the players with the documentary evidence provided by the CBI," he added.

Stating that a couple of players also handed him some documentary statements, he said: "However, none of the players had disputed the CBI report."

Madhavan questioned Manoj Prabhakar, Ajay Jadeja, Nayan Mongia and Ali Irani in Madras, Kishore Rungta, Ajay Sharma and Ram Adhar in Delhi and Mohammad Azharuddin in Hyderabad.

Madhavan also said he had handed over a note to BCCI president A C Muthiah about observations made by the CBI against the BCCI and is expecting a reply from him soon.

Mail Cricket Editor