India cricket board contemplates 'action'

The report was submitted to the government on Monday

By Sanjeev Srivastava in Bombay

India's cricket board says it is yet to decide on taking any action against cricketers named in a match-fixing report.

The report was submitted to the Indian Government by the Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday.

The findings have not been officially published, but details have been revealed in the Indian media.

The report is said to name five Indian cricket stars and a former team official as having had contact with bookies and accepting money from them.

The CBI had questioned Azharuddin (centre)

But it apparently does not say how or if the players actually under-performed to fix matches.

Former captain, Mohammad Azharuddin and teammates Ajay Jadeja, Nayan Mongia, Manoj Prabhakar and Ajay Sharma are said to figure in the report.

It is also said to name the former physiotherapist of the Indian team, Dr Ali Irani.

Ban?

Cricket board president AC Muthiah told the BBC that the CBI's findings had not yet been officially communicated to the board.

"It all depends on the extent of the involvement of Indian players. So far newspaper reports suggest that the evidence against Indian players is only circumstantial and the CBI report has not found them guilty of match-fixing," he said.

However, he said if there was sufficient evidence about Indian players being involved in match-fixing the authorities would not hesitate in taking the "extreme step".

He did not elaborate, but cricket officials have suggested they could impose a life ban on those cricketers named by the CBI.

Mr Muthiah had earlier said that if any Indian player was proven guilty of match fixing, his records and achievements would be erased from the official record books.