Azhar faces Indian Board

Azharuddin (right): Avoided waiting reporters

Mohammad Azharuddin has been given a final opportunity to plead his case after being found guilty of match-fixing.

He was summoned to appear before officials of the Board of Control for Cricket in India at a hotel in Delhi on Tuesday.

The 37-year-old arrived at a rear entrance to avoid waiting reporters and camera crews and left quickly afterwards with the help of hotel security staff.

We will be taking deterrent action

  BCCI's AC Muthiah

He is facing the possibility of a life ban from the game after being found guilty following an internal inquiry, conducted by K Madhavan, the former director of the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Azharuddin allegedly admitted his involvement in match-fixing during a recent investigation by the CBI, but subsequently protested his innocence.

BBCI president AC Muthiah said Azharuddin had told them: "I have been an honest cricketer, brought a lot of fame to India. I don't believe all this and have not been involved in any match-fixing."

Report

The Madhavan inquiry was ordered by the BCCI in the wake of the CBI's 162-page report into cricket corruption.

Four other players, Ajay Jadeja, Nayan Mongia, Ajay Sharma and Manoj Prabhakar, were also ordered to attend the hearing at the hotel.

Madhavan concluded that Jadeja, Sharma and Prabhakar had links with bookmakers but had not been involved in match-fixing.

Mongia, however, was cleared of all allegations against him.

Jadeja: Surrounded by the media scrum

Jadeja emerged from the hearings to protest his innocence, saying: "I have not changed anything. What I have said at previous press conferences, I repeated to the board members."

Deterrent action

Muthiah confirmed that he would apprise the entire Board of the player's responses, but promised "deterrent action".

He said: "We have to take action, or else we would be seen as shielding them."

The fate of Azharuddin and the other players will be announced at the Board's special general meeting on Wednesday.

Prabhakar, whose bribery allegations made against former captain Kapil Dev - rejected by the CBI - sparked the initial investigation, insisted that his conscience was clear.

"I may have lost the battle, but I have won the war against fraud in cricket," he claimed.

"Maybe they wanted to save someone very special."

Kamel Morarka, a member of the Board's disciplinary committee, has, however, voiced his unhappiness at the way the original CBI inquiry was carried out.

"There is more corruption in the CBI than in cricket," the Agence France Presse quoted him as saying.