After the Central Crime Branch arrested Goa wicketkeeper CM Gautam and Mizoram captain Abrar Kazi (who both formerly played for Karnataka), for their involvement in match-fixing in the KPL, BCCI’s Anti-Corruption chief Ajit Singh said that the board will conduct their own inquiry and determine the magnitude of punishment required.
“There are two points here. When the Bangalore police files its chargesheet, its investigation will be complete. We’ll take a copy of that chargesheet. Secondly, there are some people against whom we have also launched our inquiry. We’re taking their statements and giving them the opportunity to defend themselves. After that, we’ll propose the necessary action to the Board,” BCCI’s Anti-Corruption Chief Ajit Singh told TOI.
Singh, who also refrained from explaining if there were more players involved in the fixing, instead referring to them as ‘participants’, added, “We’re in touch with the police. If we’ve something, we pass it on to them because they’ve the legal authority to take care of a much wider spectrum. We can only take action against the ‘participants,’ but they can do that against the others, like the bookies, too. We can’t act against the bookies.
“From this year, it’s the BCCI who will take care of their (state leagues’) anti-corruption needs. We’re happy that we’ve got leads and are conducting inquiries. We’re pleased that the Bangalore police is also being proactive on this front. The police has far more powers than us. They can arrest people who are out of our ambit. I feel that after the action that has been taken, the impact will be far-reaching. Maybe, the next edition of KPL will be cleaner than what it was.
The BCCI’s previous anti-corruption chief, Neeraj Kumar also told TOI, “I had warned the Board many times on this count. The owners of teams can be dubious, and can strike a deal with the players to do ‘certain things’ for them in lieu of a favour. The BCCI needs to screen the owners of these teams thoroughly. You can’t relax the norms to become a team owner.”
