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Lele clears Indian team of charges of match-fixing

Board of Control for Cricket in India Secretary Jayawant Y Lele today virtually cleared the Indian team of charges of match-fixing, saying that players earned enough from the game to indulge in any such malpractice.

In an interview to the Star News channel, he said, ''Players like Sachin, Azhar or Saurav are making five to six million from cricket every year. Why would they engage in match-fixing?''

The virtual clean chit for members of the Indian team came even before the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Delhi police concluded their investigation into match-fixing allegations.

Lele believed cricket was a team game where the result could not be influenced by one or two people alone. ''These are all allegations at the moment, nothing has been proved at any stage, I don't see any reason to believe them,'' he said.

However, he admitted that the BCCI was disturbed over the allegations as they were of serious nature.''Why only players, we (BCCI officials) are disturbed. The BCCI is as disturbed as anyone else because these are serious allegations. If after sometime these are proved, they will have a very serious impact on everything.''

Lele denied reports that the Indian team, currently undergoing a training camp in Pune, is low in confidence after the match-fixing controversy. ''I think they are all geared up and ready to combat international cricket. Everybody's looking forward to Dhaka to prove the worth of the Indian team.''

Asked about the decision against cutting down on the number of matches, the BCCI official said, ''It is better that India should honour all their international commitments. We should play well, win the tournaments and everybody will forget about match-fixing.''

On Indian coach Kapil Dev's assertion that India should stop playing international cricket till the match-fixing scandal was over, he said, ''I have seen Kapil at the training camp in Pune. He is totally committed to his job.''

The Board secretary, who had described the accusations against South African captain Hansie Cronje as 'absolute rubbish', now admitted that the Cronje case could have serious implications for the game. "If these allegations are proved it will have a serious impact on the game,'' he said.

He refused to accept that the Board had a personal vendetta against its former president I S Bindra. ''Whatever fame he has got is because of his holding the presidentship of the BCCI and today the same person without taking the Board into confidence is going and doing things which he is not supposed to.''

UNI