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Bindra submits 360-page report to CBI

Onkar Singh in New Delhi

Former Board of Control for Cricket in India president Inderjit Singh Bindra today submitted a 360-page report relating to the match-fixing controversy, to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Bindra's much-awaited meeting with CBI officials finally took place around 5 p.m when he and Punjab Cricket Association secretary M P Pandov drove to the Lodhi Complex headquarters of the investigating agency in an Ambassador car. Soon after, the main gates of the complex were locked from inside.

Bindra was taken to the third floor office of joint director R N Savani, who is heading the investigation in the match-fixing case. He was huddled with CBI officials for over an hour. Later he stepped out of the well-guarded complex and answered a flurry of questions from waiting newsmen, who had been camping outside the headquarters since afternoon.

He refused to divulge details of the documents he submitted but said they pertained to three main aspects of match-fixing.

Bindra demanded that all television rights deals since 1996 should be probed, and the profit margin of middlemen be limited to not more than 15 per cent instead of 80 per cent as of today.

He also said tournaments in places like Sharjah, Toronto, Singapore and Dhaka should be stopped.

"I had signed the contract for Toronto and therefore I take the blame myself. There is a need to have another look at matches organised by the board. Because the board makes lot of money, therefore the players also do not take these matches very seriously and hence are open to fixing a game," he said.

He however refused to comment on his statement that he has no proof to prove the involvement of former India captain Kapil Dev in match-fixing.

"I do not want to divert the attention of the media from the investigation into match-fixing by the CBI by talking about any other thing. I would not like to divulge the details of what we have given to the agency in our documents," said Bindra.

He said he is going to be in Delhi till Friday and will meet any newsman and answer all his questions including the one relating to Kapil Dev and the charge against him.

Asked when Prabhakar told him that it was Kapil Dev who offered him money to play below his ability in a match, Bindra said: "He met me on April 22 in Chandigarh and told me about the name of Kapil Dev."

Then, when the CBI inquiry was already announced on April 28, why did he choose to reveal the name to a foreign television network which has nothing to do with cricket?

"I have already said that I would answer questions in due course. I am here and you can contact me in Punjab Bhavan where I will be staying," he said.

After Bindra departed from the scene, CBI spokesman S M Khan told newsmen that Bindra had indeed submitted the documents to the agency and his team would go through the contents in next couple of days.

"If need be we would call him again to seek any clarification. Since the documents were submitted only a few minutes back therefore I cannot tell you what it contains. It will take us sometime before we could tell you about its contents," said Khan.