Published: Aug 23, 2018, 02:57 PM (IST)
Edited: Aug 23, 2018, 02:57 PM (IST)
A member of India’s 2011 World Cup winning squad was in contact with a bookie in the run-up to an international match during the 2008-09 season, IPL investigator BB Misra has revealed.
According to a report, Misra, who did not identify the alleged cricketer, said that due to time constraint he was unable to further his investigation into the case.
Misra was appointed by the Supreme Court to investigate IPL corruption probe after Justice Mudgal, in a sealed envelope, submitted names of suspected individuals to the apex court. He was asked to focus on four officials from the 13 names of which nine were players.
During his course of investigation, Misra came across a phone conversation, allegedly between a bookie and a cricketer but since it wasn’t part of his charter.
“It was a phone conversation (between the player and the bookie) that was recorded…It would have taken a lot more time (beyond) October 31. There are two voices on the telephone. Allegedly one is that of the player and the other one is of the bookie. If I have to investigate, I have to take voice samples of the player and the voice samples of the bookie. Send it for forensic opinion. That takes a month. And then, why do I have to do it when it was not part of my charter? It could have been done if we had more time…We didn’t get an occasion for the player and the bookie to be confronted. I managed to speak to the bookie. He did say he was in touch with the player,” he was quoted as saying by the Indian Express on Thursday.
He further revealed that the bookie had agreed to provide evidence but backed out at the last minute. “I would have confronted the player with the information I got from the bookie. But (that) evidence didn’t come from the bookie though I knew the evidence existed, I could not pursue it. I knew of this specific instance where the bookie had confided in somebody else, I got that information, the bookie accepted that information before me also, he was willing to give the evidence but in the last minute he decided not to,” he said.
The information related to the nine players is not yet known. However, the investigation about the four officials – N Srinivasan (former BCCI president), Gurunath Meiyappan (Former CSK Team Principle), Raj Kundra (former owner of Rajasthan Royals) and Sundar Raman (former IPL COO) – has been made public.
