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| February 09, 2007 | Friday | Muharram 20, 1428 |
Indian police may quiz Samuels over bookie link
MUMBAI, Feb 8: Indian police may question West Indies batsman Marlon Samuels over his links with an Indian bookmaker to whom he allegedly passed confidential team information during a one-day series in India last month.
Police in Nagpur say they have proof of a telephone conversation between Samuels and a bookmaker on the eve of the first One-day International against India which the hosts won by 14 runs.
Jamaican Samuels, 26, took none for 53 and scored 40 runs in that match.
“We cannot rule out the possibility of talking to him,” P.S. Pasricha, police chief of the western Maharashtra state, where Nagpur is located, said.
“We will have to look into the investigation and then see if the matter needs to be dealt with at government level.”
Police said Samuels had been in touch with international bookmaker Mukesh Kochchar whom they had kept under surveillance for some time.
Pasricha said the matter had been reported to the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
Nagpur police chief S.P.S. Yadav said they had no proof of any illegal monetary transaction between Samuels and Kochchar or of match-fixing.
Yadav said no case has been registered against Samuels.
“No offence under the law of the land is involved. We started looking into the case because we thought there was some possibility of an offence being detected.”
Police say information exchanged was about the “team and bowling order”.
The ICC, meanwhile, declined to comment on the issue.
“We have not seen any report as yet. In any case, as a rule of thumb we do not comment on any activities the ACSU (ICC's Anti-Corruption and Security Unit) may be involved in,” Brian Murgatroyd, the ICC's media and communications manager, said.
“If we had any comments (they would not be made) until we have had time to read and digest any report that the Nagpur police may have compiled.”
In 2000, Indian police unearthed a match-fixing scandal that led to a life ban from cricket for the then South Africa skipper Hansie Cronje.
Further investigations named several international players and an internal BCCI inquiry found former captain Mohammad Azharuddin guilty of corruption and banned him for life.
Five-year bans were handed to Ajay Jadeja and Manoj Prabhakar.
On Wednesday, the West Indies cricket board said it would hold an investigation into the charge brought by Indian police once they had received details from the ICC or BCCI.—Reuters
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