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Cricket-Indian media heap
11/1/2000 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
^Cricket-Indian media heaps scorn on fallen heroes@
NEW DELHI, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Indian media on Thursday heaped scorn on cricket's fallen heroes after the country's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) released a report on match-fixing that named a string of stars.
The Asian Age newspaper printed photographs of several of the named players and screamed ``World helleven'' -- a play on the words ``hell'' and ``eleven,'' the number of players in a cricket team.
The CBI report, mainly based on testimony from one key witness, bookmaker M.K. Gupta, was released on Wednesday and accused former Indian cricket captain Mohammad Azharuddin of fixing matches.
Azharuddin has yet to comment on the allegations.
The report also accused Ajay Jadeja, Manoj Prabhakar, Nayan Mongia and a number of other international stars of having had links with bookmakers.
Indian players have previously denied match-fixing charges, while a number of the international players named have also denied any wrongdoing.
``The cricketers are caught-in their own trap. As the guilty spill the beans let us enjoy the show as they fall like nine pins,'' said a letter in the Asian Age summing up the nation's mood.
But some newspapers said that although the CBI might have come out with details, it did not have any hope of coming up with a case.
``The CBI report: Lots of 'facts', no evidence,'' the Hindustan Times said in a front page report.
The report said no criminal charges could be filed against those named ``because of the nebulous position of law in this regard,'' but Sports Minister Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa said he had sent the report to the law ministry for its views.
``Yet while the charges that the CBI has levelled against India's top cricketing icons may not stick in court, they will definitely be plastered on public memory,'' the Hindustan Times said.
``Which raises the question is it okay to damn people on the basis of admittedly insufficient evidence?'' the paper added.
The CBI investigations began in May after the sacking of South African captain Hansie Cronje, who was later banned for life after admitting to supplying information to bookmakers in exchange for money.
In April, Delhi police named Cronje and three teammates in connection with match-fixing during a one day series in India in March.
Reut23:54 11-01-00
