New Delhi/Chennai,
Sept 16:
An India women cricketer reported a corrupt approach for the first time, while the Tamil Nadu Premier League found its coaches and officials under the scanner as the spectre of match-fixing reared its head yet again to cause upheaval in Indian cricket today.
An unnamed member of the Indian women’s cricket team was allegedly approached to fix matches ahead of the home series against England earlier this year, prompting the BCCI’s Anti-Corruption Unit to lodge an FIR against two individuals on Monday.
The alleged incident, which the player reported to the Board’s ACU, took place in February. Ajit Singh Shekhawat, the former DGP of Rajasthan and who heads the BCCI ACU, confirmed the development.
“She is an India cricketer and also an international cricketer. So, the ICC conducted an inquiry into it. The ICC warned the person who made the approach and informed us and acknowledged that the cricketer has done the right thing by reporting the approach,” Shekhawat said.
The ACU has registered a first-information report (FIR) with the Bengaluru police against two individuals, Rakesh Bafna and Jitendra Kothari, for the alleged approach.
This was after the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL), an event run by the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association found itself in troubled waters with a few first-class cricketers and a couple of coaches coming under the ACU’s scanner for suspected match-fixing.
Shekhawat, however, ruled out the possibility of any international player being a suspect. The TNPL started in 2016 and features eight franchises.
Some players have reported that they received WhatsApp messages from certain unknown people. We are trying to find out who those people are. We have recorded the statements of the players and we will try to track the senders of the messages,” he said.
“There is no international player…any player who has got the message, he is supposed to report it to us, it’s part of his obligation,” he added. (PTI)
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