FORMER Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin has denied claims by Hansie Cronje that he introduced the disgraced South African skipper to a bookie who offered money to throw a 1996 Test match. “It’s all rubbish. Cronje has no credibilty left with him. I don’t know the person he is talking about,” Azharuddin said. “I will be going to Delhi tomorrow and will tell the concerned authorities whatever I want to say,” he added. Cronje on Thursday told the King Commission that Azharuddin had introduced him to a bookmaker known as MK during South Africa’s tour of India in 1996. Indian Cricket Board secretary Jaywant Lele said Cronje’s confession should be treated with caution. “Cronje is saying so many things and the next day he says I didn’t say it,” Lele told the Star TV network. During his deposition, Cronje confessed to pocketing large sums of money during a five-year flirtation with bookmakers and vowed that he would not play representative cricket again as punishment. The New Delhi police force, whose charges in April against Cronje for match-fixing triggered the current scandal, said his latest statement vindicates their initial findings. “We alway knew that we were on the right track,” a senior police official linked to the ongoing investigation into Cronje said. “The pressures were tremendous, but we did not backtrack. This confession will now have a direct bearing in the case and strengthen the hand of the prosecution.” While Cronje has been offered immunity from prosecution in South Africa in exchange for coming clean over the charges, the Indian authorities have made it clear that no such deal has been offered in India. The Indian police charges relate to five one-day international series South Africa played here between March 9 and 19. India won the series 3-2. Reacting to Cronje’s naming of Azharuddin as a link in the scandal, the Delhi police officer said it was up to India’s federal Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to follow up the matter. “As far as Azharuddin is concerned, all we can say is that the CBI should now get to him and confront him with Hansie Cronje’s testimonial.”