Matches can be and are fixed but they can be fixed only for loosing not for winning. No one can fix a match for winning it. From Sept 1996 to Sept 1997, each of the 14 players of the team including the coach must have earned over Rs 50 lakhs which consists only of what the board pays them. When the team goes abroad they get a daily allowance of 50 USD per day. They do not spend that money. They have a large number of fans, some of whom are highly placed and invite them for dinners but, I can say that the Indian team is a very disciplined, well- behaved lot of players , most of whom live within their means.

The Board cannot do anything about disproportionate assets of the players. But I have a feeling that one or two players have acquired disproportionate assets. Out of the logo money, the board keeps 40 per cent and distributes 60 per cent equally among the players. Manoj Prabhakar wanted more money to be paid to the senior members of the team. He was dropped not only from the Indian team but he was not even included in his home Delhi team. The story which he gave to Outlook is not true .It only shows his deep sense of frustration.






Sunil Dev, Former vice-president, BCCI and manager of the Indian team, stated that he suspected Ajay Sharma due to his proximity with Azharuddin. Ajay Sharma was seen at many places with Azharuddin during matches and was also available to Azharuddin on telephone.

He revealed that some bookies had reportedly snatched Ajay Sharma's Opel Astra Car and his cell phone, sometime after the India-South Africa series. Similarly, he also suspected one Karun Dubey, a former Ranji Trophy player, due to his proximity with Kapil Dev. He further stated that Karun Dubey visited Australia and was with Kapil Dev during the last series in Australia. He also stated that Kapil Dev owned a lot of property, including a flat in London, a house in Sunder Nagar, some residential property in Maharani Bagh, Safdarjung Enclave and some property in Chandigarh. It was difficult to believe that all this property can be owned purely through income as a cricketer.

He also stated that Ajay Jadeja also had a lot of property in Delhi and Bombay which needed to be probed. Sunil Dev also stated that when India plays in some non-regular venues like Singapore, Nairobi, Toronto and Dubai, there are some middlemen who take some money to arrange these matches in connivance with the BCCI office-bearers.