Police quiz Kapil Dev

Kapil Dev: Insists he has nothing to hide

Indian coach Kapil Dev will find out whether he can keep his job within the next few days after being questioned by police investigating allegations of match-fixing.

The former all-rounder, who took 434 wickets in 131 Test appearances, was interviewed by officers from the Central Bureau of Investigation on Thursday.

Kapil has 12 months left of a two-year contract and insists he has done nothing wrong, despite allegations made against him by ex-teammate Manoj Prabhakar.

I will strongly recommend an early submission of the CBI report to the government

  Kapil Dev

But he now faces talks with AC Muthiah, president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, who is currently attending an Asian cricket summit meeting in Sharjah.

"I will meet him personally as soon as I reach India. It is only after the meeting that I will decide whether to fire him or retain him," Muthiah said.

Kapil is also among a group of players, past and present, and officials, who are the subject of an ongoing inquiry by tax officials, who raided homes and offices in various Indian cities in July.

Disillusionment

He has voiced his disillusionment with the game and accused the Indian Board of failing to act quickly enough to rid the game of corruption.

"It's a consequence of the Board not being in the hands of professionals. It's no use having honorary people who have other jobs to do and are not accountable to anyone," he was recently quoted as saying.

Prabhakar claims Dev offered him a bribe to play badly against Pakistan in 1984.

He has also been accused of receiving a luxury car from Hameed Cassim, who was allegedly involved in the match-fixing scandal centred on South Africa captain Hansie Cronje.

A national hero when he lifted the World Cup in 1983

Kapil was the last high-profile figure to be questioned by the CBI, who will now submit an interim report to government Sports Minister SS Dhindsa by the end of the month.

The Press Trust of India quotes spokesman SM Khan as saying that a decision on whether to charge any of those questioned would only be taken after the government had considered the report.

The government ordered the CBI investigation in April after police charged Cronje and teammates, Herschelle Gibbs, Nicky Boje and Pieter Strydom with fraud and conspiracy.

The charges were based on taped telephone conversations, allegedly involving Cronje and a bookmaker.