The Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) of the Board of Control for Cricket in India registered a First Information Report (FIR) against two individuals namely Rakesh Bafna and Jitendra Kothari — at the Ashok Nagar Police Station in Bengaluru for an alleged attempt of match-fixing and cheating.
According to the reports, one of the prominent Indian female cricketers was approached by these persons earlier this year. She was offered a huge amount of money provided she joined hands with them. The incident took place in February just ahead of Indian women’s team’s limited-overs series against England, a part of International Cricket Council (ICC)’s World Championships.
BCCI ACU chief, Ajit Singh told Sportstar, “Today, we have got an FIR registered against two people in Bengaluru. The FIR pertains to an approach that was made to one of the women cricketers of the team. She reported the approach to us and even recorded the conversation she had with one of the accused over the telephone.”
Singh further told that Kothari introduced himself as a sports manager, got in touch with the concerned cricketer last year and offered her managerial services. Then he contacted her again in February this year, and introduced her to Bafna saying that Bafna had a business deal. The player was at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru at that time and was going through recovery sessions.“Kothari was trying to sell himself as the manager of various women cricketers. It was he who introduced Bafna to the player. He approached her to fix matches and play according to the script.”
It was learned that Bafna also asked the player to try to involve the ODI captain of the team. “Initially the call was made via WhatsApp and Bafna said that endorsement would be for a noted Indian clothing brand. But soon, he directly approached her to fix matches. The player told him that there is a bad connection and she could call her on her regular number,” Singh added further.
Bafna offered the player Rs 1 lakh per match during the India-England series, according to the reports. The things did not go well with the cricketer and she filed a report with the BCCI. Since the incident happened before an ICC event, the ICC anti-corruption unit also got involved and after investigation, observed, “Bafna took advantage of Kothari’s inaptitude, and the player had rightly made a report of the approachment. Bafna was warned for his action and was reported to the BCCI and ICC.” But the board later found out that Kothari made attempts to contact other members of the women’s team as well and “conspired with Bafna with the intention to fix matches.”
The Anti Corruption Unit chief, a former Rajasthan DGP, further shared his thoughts on the fixing in general and said, People involved in betting just need any cricket match, for them, it does not matter at what level it is being played. If a match is telecast, that helps them in betting and that’s why they indulge in spot-fixing.”