India’s first cricketer who was banned for match fixing, then big names of Team India joined…

Match fixing in cricket: 7 April 2000. Ishwar Singh of the Crime Branch of Delhi Police revealed that he/she has a recording of the conversation between South African captain Hansie Cronje and bookie Sanjeev Chawla, who was involved in fixing. As is often the case, within 24 hours South Africa issued a statement saying that none of its players were involved in match-fixing. But within three days Hansie Cronje’s resignation was accepted. There was a fire in the forest and gradually many giants got affected by it. On 28 April, the Government of India handed over the investigation to the CBI. On the other hand, the African Board formed an investigation committee in May. Herschelle Gibbs, Nikki Boye were also in the grip now. On June 15, Cronje took the name of an Indian cricketer in this list for the first time. Cronje said that he/she was first introduced to bookie Mukesh Gupta by Mohammad Azharuddin.

Thus, the match-fixing genie that came out of the bottle in April shook Indian cricket. The wrist magician whom Indian fans called ‘Wonder Boy’ was allegedly fixing. People took to the streets and effigies of Azhar were burnt. Meanwhile, on July 20, 2000, CBI raided the houses of Azhar, Ajay Jadeja, Nayan Mongia, Nikhil Chopra. Nothing suspicious was found in any of their homes; But CBI claimed that Azhar had confessed to match fixing. However, Azhar termed this claim as false.

Mayank Yadav equaled the record of Chief Selector, started his/her career with maiden, then wicket and most expensive over…

On 31 October 2000, CBI released its statement. It was claimed that the then captain Azharuddin took the help of Ajay Jadeja and Nayan Mongia in fixing the match. On 27 November 2000, BCCI found Azhar, Ajay Jadeja, Manoj Prabhakar, Ajay Sharma and former team physio Ali Irani guilty of fixing. On December 5, Azhar and Ajay Sharma were banned for life. Ajay Jadeja was banned from participating in any kind of cricketing activities for 5 years. Manoj Prabhakar and Ali Irani were also banned for five years, according to which they could not hold any post in the board.

This was the first time that the Indian Cricket Board had banned any of its players in a fixing case. However, there is no ban on any of these cricketers now. The ban imposed on Ajay Jadeja was lifted after the decision of the Supreme Court in 2003. Azhar got the ban lifted by winning the case in the Supreme Court in 2012. BCCI had also lifted the ban on Ajay Sharma after two years.

Efforts had started in 1990 itself
Even after the case came to light in the year 2000, many cricketers came under the grip of fixing. It was also revealed in the CBI investigation that fixing had entered Indian cricket in 1990 itself. The story of the 1990 fixing case is a story for another time…

tag: Ajay Jadeja, Indian cricketer, match fixing, Mohammad Azharuddin