Indian police may question West Indies batsman Marlon Samuels over his links with an Indian bookmaker to whom he allegedly passed confidential team information during a one-day series in India last month.
Police in India’s central city of Nagpur say they have proof of a telephone conversation between Samuels and a bookmaker on the eve of the first one-day international against India, which the hosts won by 14 runs.
Jamaican Samuels (26) took 0-53 and scored 40 runs in that match.
”We cannot rule out the possibility of talking to him,” PS Pasricha, police chief of the western Maharashtra state, where Nagpur is located, told Reuters.
”We will have to look into the investigation and then see if the matter needs to be dealt with at government level.”
Police say Samuels has been in touch with international bookmaker Mukesh Kochchar whom they had kept under surveillance for sometime.
Pasricha said the matter has been reported to the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Indian cricket board.
The ICC, meanwhile, refused to comment on the issue.
Internal inquiry
”We have not seen any report as yet. In any case, as a rule of thumb we do not comment on any activities the ACSU [ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit] may be involved in,” Brian Murgatroyd, ICC’s media and communications manager, said.
”If we had any comments [they would not be made] until we have had time to read and digest any report that the Nagpur police may have compiled.”
Nagpur police chief SPS Yadav said they had no proof of any illegal monetary transaction between Samuels and Kochchar nor of match-fixing.
In 2000, Indian police unearthed a match-fixing scandal that led to a life ban from cricket for the then-South African skipper Hansie Cronje.
Further investigations named many international cricketers, and an internal inquiry of the Indian cricket board found former captain Mohammad Azharuddin guilty of corruption and banned him from the game for life. Five-year suspensions were handed to Ajay Jadeja and Manoj Prabhakar.
On Wednesday, the West Indies board said it would hold an investigation into the charge brought by Indian police. — Reuters