Match-fixing report a prostitute's diary: Morarka

Indian cricket official Kamal Morarka described the federal investigators match-fixing report as a prostitute's diary in New Delhi on Sunday.

Morarka, one of three officials nominated to hand out punishment to guilty players this week, also described the report by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as a "big joke".

"What is the credibility of such a report?" Morarka told tehelka.com.

"It is like a prostitute's diary. You will find names of so many rich and famous people there. How does a set of names in a bookie's diary matter?"

Morarka is one of five vice-presidents of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and sits on its three-member disciplinary committee that will decide the fate of five tainted players.

The CBI report accuses former captain Mohammad Azharuddin of match-fixing and Ajay Jadeja, Manoj Prabhakar, Ajay Sharma and Nayan Mongia of hobnobbing with bookmakers.

Sources said that while Azharuddin faces a life ban, there is pressure on the BCCI to go soft on Jadeja, the only among the five with a real chance of playing for India again.

In the interview, Morarka said "the corrupt" CBI had not been able to prove the match-fixing charges against the players.

"All they have concluded is that match-fixing exists in cricket," Morarka said.

"So what is this great thing that they have done? Everybody knew that match-fixing exists in cricket. There is no cogent evidence against anybody, apart from Azharuddin. All the CBI has, by way of evidence, is mobile telephone bills and printouts. But the cricketers have not really confessed anything at all. Most have said that they met these people at health clubs and the like. And mobile phone conversations do not necessarily have to do with match-fixing. I don't think that the CBI has proved match-fixing at all."

Morarka did not spare the CBI, which castigated the functioning of the BCCI and accused it of turning a blind dye to the player-bookie nexus.

"I sincerely believe that there is no organisation in India that is as corrupt as the CBI," the website quoted him as saying.

"My statement doesn't leave too much room for debate. It is axiomatic. They (the CBI) are only a group of police officers that have been taken off duty and inducted in an organisation called the CBI. Tell me, what is the image of police officers in this country? I think every citizen in the country will admit that the police are more of a problem for them than anything else."

The BCCI immediately disassociated itself from Morarka's tirade against the CBI, with president A C Muthiah saying it was his personal opinion.

A CBI spokesman refused to comment on Morarka's outburst, except to say it had enough evidence against the cricketers to nail them.

As the BCCI's disciplinary committee -- comprising Muthiah, Morarka and another vice-president Ram Prasad -- debates the punishments, Union Sports Minister Uma Bharati called for stern action against the guilty players and denied political pressure to save Jadaja.

Mail Cricket Editor