4 November, 2000

G'day girls and boys....

I wonder if it is only me? Or do you, too, find yourself constantly going back to the CBI report?

At that, it has all the ingredients of a good thriller -- a certain un-put-down-ability. Coupled with a come-back factor, that makes you want to pick it up again and flip through the pages one more time.

The CBI would appear to have pulled off a classic sting. In its first round of inquiries, it summoned all the cricketers and played the soft cop, letting them blab. To cite one instance, Azhar during his first round of interrogation told the CBI -- and later, the media -- what a misunderstood man he was.

Look at me, he says, I live in a flat in Bombay that doesn't even have a working lift most of the time, we have to walk up to the seventh floor which is how I stay fit, ha ha ha. Ha ha ha, dutifully echo the CBI officials. Azhar embroiders further -- about how he took a loan to buy a flat for his parents, how when he goes to Hyderabad he has to live in a rented flat, a cheap one at that, and so on and so forth, blah blah blah.

They listen to it all, and they tell him at the end, thank you so much Azharbhai for taking the trouble, may we have your autograph please?

And off he goes. Meanwhile, they keep working on the bookies and punters, till someone cracks. And then they go further, and tip off the IT authorities into pulling off a nationwide series of raids -- with CBI officials in tow.

And then come the second round of enquiries. And Azhar, say, walks into the office, and suddenly, everything has changed. 'You told us that you live in a flat without a lift in Bombay -- but actually, you stay in a penthouse that is valued in the market at Rs 2.2 crore, and you have besides one other penthouse and two other flats in Bombay, do you have anything to say?'

Er, ah, goes Azhar.

'You told us you live in a rented place in Hyderabad, whereas the truth is that you have a multi-crore mansion in Banjara Hills, plus properties in x, y and z other locations, could you tell us where these came from?

And so on. Ad infinitum. Turning the screws gradually, one thread at a time. No offers of light refreshment, no requests for autographs, no smiles, no camaraderie. Just a relentless recital of facts.

They did this with all the cricketers. Jadeja stonewalled. I mean, it takes monumental gall for a cricketer, confronted with the fact of having made 62 phone calls to a bookie in course of a match, to say, "I don't know how he got my number, I dont know how he knows me, I dont know what he called me for, I was told it was good luck to talk to him...."

But the funny thing is, incredible though that defence sounds, Jadeja would have got away with it. As a certain Sidhu has. As a certain Nayan Mongia almost did. Because when you get right down to it, it is just one bookie's word against a cricketer's. And any good defense lawyer would go the Johnnie Cochran/Alan Dershowitz route, and base his entire defence on so completely discrediting the bookie, on so thoroughly underlining the point of what a disreputable character he was, that there would be no question of his words being given the same heft as that of the cricketer he was fingering.

But. And a big but it is, too.

What the CBI was hoping for, did in fact happen. One cricketer cracked. Azharuddin confessed to fixing a couple of games -- was he hoping that by confessing to a couple, he could get off lightly, make it seem as though what he did was not quite so bad? Anyways, for the CBI's purposes, a confession to even one single, solitary fix was enough. And Azhar obligingly named his comrades in crime -- Jadeja and Mongia.

Had Azhar done a Jadeja, and denied everything... Had Azhar done a Sidhu, and passed off his money, his assets, as 'gifts' from the ubiquitous 'admirers'....

Sure, it would have sounded incredible -- but would it have been any more incredible than the few hundred phone calls from a bookie that Jadeja accepted because he was superstitious enough to believe that it would bring him 'good luck'?

What could the CBI have done, had Azhar denied the allegations? Confronted him with MK Gupta's deposition? Azhar could have shrugged those Armani-clad shoulders of his and gone, So? Are you going to take the word of a self-confessed bookmaker against that of "India's most successful captain"?

The CBI could have done zip. Because, remember, they didn't even have a case officially filed.

Azhar didn't have the brass to pull that off. And therefore, mercifully, we now have a situation where even the Mongias and Jadejas are hooked.

My colleague Faisal met Mongia in Bombay yesterday. And for one hour, Mongia did nothing but talk of Azhar's perfidy in naming him. 'There was nothing against me, no one even mentioned my name, why did that &%@$*(&*#)))!@ Azhar have to do this to me?'

Mongia is cursing. Jadeja is probably cursing, too. But frankly, I am glad Azhar didn't, when push came to shove, have what it took to brazen it out. At least that way, we've been spared a nightmare that has gone on long enough -- do you know that even ten days ahead of the release of the CBI report, there were behind the scenes moves being made to try and ensure that Azhar was picked for the Bangladesh Test? One of the arguments was that he deserves a chance to complete his 100th! And another, that there was no replacement for him in the number five slot!!

In passing, and still on the theme of Azhar breaking down under the heat -- does it make you wonder what kind of legal advice he got? Way before the CBI even got into the act, when the Prabhakar tapes first became public, Azhar hired one of the most high profile lawyers in the country, to advise him.

The result? This -- Azhar walks into a trap so meticulously laid for him.

Maybe there is a god, after all.

And oh, in passing -- did you read Muthaiah's various statements? Especially the one where he says he can't answer questions about events that took place prior to his taking office as board president?

Maybe it is time to remind him of some events that did take place while he was boss. Which is what I am attempting to do in my column for today.

Meanwhile, most of you must be preparing for the weekend. Have a great one... and keep that smile on. :-)

Prem

Mail Cricket Editor