ICC team headed for Nagpur

ICC to send a team to Nagpur to probe the alleged links between Samuels and alleged bookie Mukesh Kochar, report Tushar Srivastava and Pradip Maitra.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has decided to send a team to Nagpur by Monday to probe the alleged links between West Indies all-rounder Marlon Samuels and alleged bookie Mukesh Kochar.

HT Image

Meanwhile, the Delhi Police have said that the recorded conversations between Samuels and Kochar have nothing to suggest that an entire match was being fixed. Delhi Police Commissioner KK Paul said on Friday, “Going by what has appeared in the media, the ingredients of match-fixing are missing in the case.”

ICC sources also told HT that the information they had with them at this point of time was too thin to penalise Samuels, adding that the ICC would have to first establish that Kochar is a bookie.

The ICC team that will visit Nagpur will consist of officials from the ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit. “We have received a communication that a team from the ICC will go to Nagpur,” confirmed an Indian cricket board source. The ICC will forward the findings of the team to the West Indies Cricket Board.

Interestingly, a man, who claimed to be Kochar’s lawyer, called from Dubai and said that his client had denied all the charges, but was willing to cooperate in the probe.

Inputs from Sanjeev K Ahuja