IPL fixing offer: Board praises, promises

The board president also praised the player for coming forward and informing the BCCI’s ACSU about the approach.

A day after The Indian Express reported that a Rajasthan Royals player had informed the BCCI that he had been approached by a Ranji teammate to play to a “pre-decided plan” in the IPL, board president Jagmohan Dalmiya promised to initiate an inquiry and take “proper action”.

“Let me go through the reports. There’s no question of sitting idle on it. We will initiate an inquiry and the guilty will be punished.

Operation clean-up tops my agenda,” Dalmiya said.

The board president also praised the player for coming forward and informing the BCCI’s Anti-Corruption & Security Unit (ACSU) about the approach.

Confirming the incident, Rajasthan Royals’ CEO Raghu Iyer said: “Over a month ago, a player from Rajasthan Royals was approached inappropriately by a player in connection with the Indian Premier League 2015 matches. Maintaining high standards of integrity, the player informed the Rajasthan Royals management of this inappropriate approach.”

He added that the Royals management “immediately” reported the incident to the ACSU.

BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur also praised the whistleblower in a press release. He said that the “prompt action of the player is an outcome of the ongoing initiative of the BCCI to educate cricketers at various levels to reject and report any such incident or approach made by individuals who intend to damage the fabric of the game”.

Reacting to the report, former India seamer and ex-bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad also hailed the whistleblower. “This is fantastic that the player has come up and informed the authorities. This is something very positive for the game of cricket. The player should be lauded and the BCCI must be praised. The cricket board started this awareness programme two years back, taking special classes and briefing every (first-class) player about the dos and don’ts related to betting and match-fixing. Now the players know how to deal with these situations,” Prasad said.

Source:: Indian Express