Taxmen poised to strike India's five tainted cricketers

Indian revenue officials will soon ask five national players, who have been charged with match-fixing and corruption, to pay up huge taxes on their unaccounted wealth, officials said here Sunday.

Officials from the Income Tax Department said they will "soon proceed" against the five - former captain Mohammad Azahruddin, Ajay Jadeja, Nayan Mongia, Ajay Sharma and whistle-blower Manoj Prabhakar.

An official said similar action will be taken against bookmakers who, along with players and officials of India's cricket board, were raided by federal revenue officials in a nationwide crackdown in July this year.

"We have achieved reasonable success in the probe into cricketers and bookies who have huge concealed incomes from various sources," he said, adding the department would trap the players into confessing their hidden income.

The tax department has unearthed unaccounted money running in millions of rupees (dollars) from bank lockers and homes of some of the people raided in July, an official said.

The tainted players and a clutch of illegal bookies would be asked to give detailed accounts of what they had earned in the past 10 years, officials said, adding that any attempt to conceal facts would draw "severe punishment."

The tax department stepped in three days after the Central Bureau of Investigation named the five as major match fixers and sent its probe report to the Indian government for further action.

The players have been banned by India's cricket board from playing in domestic or international matches.

Besides the Indians, nine foreign players from England, West Indies, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have been named in the CBI report on match fixing released here Wednesday.

Jadeja on Saturday described the CBI report as "concocted", saying talking to bookies was not a crime. Mongia on Sunday pleaded not guilty and accused Azharuddin of levelling false allegations.

"His statment is totally false," the stumper told the Press Trust of India in Baroda of Azharuddin's statement to the CBI that Mongia also took money to divulge match information to the bookies.

"The absurdity of the allegation can be gauged by the fact that I was not a member of the team in the two matches referred by Azharuddin.

"My record also speaks for me. Since 1995, I have never dropped a catch or missed stumping chances in the matches I played. I am not a recognised batsman, so the question of my involvement in match fixing or a scandal does not arise," he said.

Two of the several bookies named in the CBI report are also linked to a Delhi Police probe which in April implicated former South African skipper Hansie Cronje and four of his teammates in fixing matches in India.

The CBI launched its probe after former Test all-rounder Prabhakar claimed that Indian cricket icon Kapil Dev had offered him 2.5 million rupees (54,000 dollars) to underperform against Pakistan in a one-day match in 1994.

Manoj Prabhakar was quoted Sunday in an interview in Sydney's Sun-Herald as saying that his decision to expose illegal betting saved many international players from the deadly wrath of the Indian mafia.

"I saved people who could have got involved by blowing the whistle. It starts with just giving information and then they threaten your life. They could have been killed."

"My conscience is clear. I wanted to support cricket, my country and all international cricketers," the paper quoted him as saying.

Mail Cricket Editor