The Nagpur police on Wednesday night claimed that they have taped a telephonic conversation between West Indian cricket player Marlon Samuels and a bookie during which he gave out info on batting line-up for the One Day International against India on January 21.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Amitesh Kumar said Samuels gave out information on the batting line-up but added: "We have no evidence about financial commitment made."
Asked why Samuels' conversation was recorded, Kumar said it would not be proper to disclose at this juncture.
Kumar said that before the Nagpur ODI, the police had concrete evidence that Samuels was in touch with bookie named Mukesh Kochar, allegedly an associate of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.
Samuels was providing to Kochar certain team details that were supposed to be confidential, Kumar said.
The team details included bowling order, team line-up, and certain other information, the DCP said.
Kumar said that the Nagpur police commissioner had sent a report to the BCCI Vice-President Shashank Manohar, who is based in Nagpur, and also to the Anti-Corruption Unit of the ICC.
"Prima facie, it is a violation of the ICC Code of Conduct for players," he said.
Asked if it was another case of match fixing, Kumar said it is confidential team details that were passed on to a cricket bookie.
"We have already sent our report to BCCI Vice-President and to the Indian representative in the ICC Anti-Corruption Unit."
BCCI Secretary Niranjan Shah said that the Board has not received such a report from the Nagpur police.
"If and when we get the report, we will pass it on to the ICC," he said.
BCCI media co-ordinator Rajiv Shukla said, "If it is true, it is a serious matter."
When contacted, ICC spokesperson Brian Murgatroyd said, "I am not aware of any such report reaching the ICC. And as a policy, we don't comment on or make public activities of the Anti-Corruption Unit."
India had won the match in Nagpur after making 338/3.
Kumar said the police had informed the BCCI that there had been certain incidents which showed that Samuels was conversing on a number of occasions with Kochar who is an international cricket bookie.
"And we have said in brief what the conversation was, including the bowling order and other details which were being provided to Kochar," Kumar said.
He said the Nagpur police offered its assistance to the Board if it needed the same for their inquiry.
Asked how many phone conversations were tapped, he said that he was not in a position to disclose any information on this right now but "we will be revealing them to the ICC and the BCCI."
"We have no information about fixing the match. We have team information being passed. There were certain promises made but we cannot reveal them now."
(With inputs from PTI)
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