da dobrowin： And so Mohd Azharuddin has finally come out with guns blazing
Partab Ramchand13-Jan-2001And so Mohd Azharuddin has finally come out with guns blazing. Therewere times, while he was batting, that fielders had to run helterskelter, unable to stop the fusillade of shots hit by the wristyHyderabadi artist. Now it would appear that is the turn of hisdetractors, officials and one time cricketing colleagues in the fieldto feel the heat of his sudden and vicious counter attack.The besieged former Indian captain, who turns 38 next month, wasobviously biding his time to strike back. Now, in his first interviewafter being slapped with a life ban by the Board of Control forCricket in India for his alleged role in the match fixing scandal,Azharuddin has hit out at cricketers like Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastriand Vinod Kambli, who played alongside him through the eighties andnineties. According to him, cricketers from Mumbai – as indeed all thethree are – have been able to get away with wrongdoing without being”investigated properly.”Azharuddin has made certain specific charges. “Nobody talks of the Rs70 lakh in cash found in Sunil Gavaskar’s Gymkhana locker. What aboutRavi Shastri’s Ali Bagh farmhouse and other costly properties? How didVinod Kambli lose his money from a locker?” These are the allegationsthat he has made in the interview to a national news weekly.To an extent, he may have a point. Initially, when news filteredthrough about the huge sum of money in Gavaskar’s locker, eyebrowswere raised and the tremors were felt well beyond the club. But thensomehow there just did not appear to be much of a follow up on whatwas clearly a matter of some controversy. Then came news of Kambli’smoney stolen from a locker and there did not seem to be a satisfactoryexplanation about this too. Shastri’s farmhouse also went off theheadlines as quickly as it made them.But thereafter much of his aim has gone awry. He exhibits eitherignorance or arrogance. Accusing people of targeting him because theyare jealous of his achievements, making uncharitable comments aboutSachin Tendulkar (which are not true in any case), his initialreaction to the CBI report (“I took the report as any otherblackmailing tactic”), and his talk about a “malicious campaign”against him when he was made captain (“the present BCCI president ACMuthiah opposed my candidature”) are all counter allegations thatshow him to be unrepentant. This can win him no new converts and hemust remember that right now he does not have many friends in thecricketing world anyway.Azharuddin says he is still hopeful of starting his cricket academyand making a comeback to play his 100th Test. “But before steppingout into the public, I want to clear my name, as I have beenwronged,” he says. One wonders how many will buy this speciousargument.During his playing days, Azharuddin was equally dexterous playing offthe front and back foot. So off the field too he has decided to attackon two fronts. Even while going on the counter attack against hisfellow cricketers, he has decided to take on the BCCI and will soonchallenge in the Andhra Pradesh High Court the life ban imposed on himfor his alleged involvement in the match fixing scandal.His advocate HR Bhardwaj has said that the writ petition in thisregard, seeking quashing of the life ban has been finalised and wouldbe filed in the high court. According to him, the main ground to betaken before the court in the petition would be to question the legalvalue of the CBI report. “The CBI followed no established procedurewhile conducting the probe,” said Bhardwaj and added “the CBI reporton betting and match fixing was neither an investigation nor a properinquiry.” Obviously if Azharuddin wants to commence a furious counterattack, he has found the right lawyer. When told that the BCCIdecision was handed down after the board anti corruption commissionerK Madhavan endorsed the findings of the CBI report, Bhardwaj is quotedto have said “Mr Madhavan was nobody to conduct the inquiry. He hadno jurisdiction to take up such a probe. It is only the cricket boardwhich is authorised to conduct the probe, hence the punishment givento Azharuddin is illegal.”The BCCI however has remained unfazed by such strong words. Boardofficials have said that they were not worried over the threat byAzharuddin to challenge the life ban in court. Board executivesecretary, Sharad Diwadkar, said on Friday that “BCCI is not worriedover the matter. We appointed Madhavan to look into the betting andmatch-fixing scam apart from hiring the services of a few advocatesand I think they will do the needful.”The irrepressible JY Lele is not to be left behind. “How can theplayers deny that they had no connections with bookmakers,” asked theBoard secretary. He added that the CBI report had proved there was anexus between the players and bookmakers. “The code of conductclearly states that there should be no connection between players andbookmakers. As the players have violated that code, we have slappedthe ban on them,” said Lele.The BCCI secretary also said that the BCCI had taken opinions fromlegal luminaries before proceeding with the decision to ban theplayers. “The attorney general of India was sitting next to Muthiah(Board president) when we took the decision and he had expressed theopinion that the ban cannot be challenged in any court.” And theBoard will undoubtedly be encouraged to know that some leading lawyersin Mumbai have expressed the view that it was well within the BCCI’sright to impose life ban on any cricketer if it feels that aparticular player has violated the terms of contract with them.There was those who thought that with the ban imposed by the BCCI onDecember 5, the dust had finally settled down on the controversy. Onthe contrary the “fun and games” may just be beginning. Watch thisspace for the next episode.