07 November, 2000

Good morning all... or afternoon or evening, as applicable...

Which puts me in mind of a thought -- I don't have a clue just who this email newsletter is going out to, and whereabouts in the world you are located. Maybe one of these days, it might be an idea to take a poll?

Anyways. Apparently it is not only history that repeats itself. Or looked at another way, do you get the feeling, as I have begun to, that Hansie Cronje and Alec Stewart have the same scriptwriter?

Compare the two instances -- the same initial outrage. The same blanket denials. The same self-serving rubbish, about the concerned player's squeaky clean image, and ergo, the absurdity of taking a police officer or agency's word over that of Mr Clean.

Then, the elaborations. Each with its little quibble.

McLaurin boasts of the indepth investigation following which Stewart was allowed to remain on the tour. Now it turns out -- thanks to Stewart's own words -- that said elaborate investigation actually consisted of three questions from McLaurin, the same word, 'no', repeated thrice by Stewart!

And now comes the follow up. To wit, Stewart's first statement on the issue.

"Of course I don't deny I have met Manoj Prabhakar. You strike up a relationship with the opposition. It is also possible I have been in his company and introduced to someone. I have been brought up to be polite and I would have said hello. I may even have spoken to Gupta on the phone without knowing it because we get phone calls all the time from fans and I am polite, short and sweet and then put the phone down."

Hmmm... am I seeing things, or does this sound eerily similar to Cronje's "I may have spoken to someone by that name, I get calls from many fans and it is not possible to remember every name..." and such?

Flat denial in fact seems to be the order of the day -- and I can think of at least one instance where this denial is going to prove very costly in the long run.

That is the case of Ajay Jadeja. During the investigations, the backstage buzz was that Azhar would be hung out to dry -- for one thing, he had flaunted his money far too openly, and for another the government was not prepared to forgive him his dalliance with the Dawoods and Memons. In fact, Azhar's political protector did try every trick in the book to save his protege, and only backed off when the GoI promised that if there were any more attempts to save Azhar, then the news of his dealings with Dawood and Memon would be immediately made public.

But the mood within the government was very favourable to the likes of Jadeja and Kapil. And then came the downer -- Jaya Jaitley, acting with the thoughtlessness of the career politician, slammed the CBI, accusing its officers and those of the IT department of asking for pizza in course of the famous raid, and suchlike misdemeanours. Jaitley probably assumed that if she made a loud enough public stink, the agency would back off.

It had the opposite effect -- it put the agency's back up, and Jadeja's goose was effectively cooked in the Jaitley sauce.

Interestingly, even a day after the CBI report was made public, the mood within the Jadeja camp was that it would all blow over and he would return to the team ranks, in due time.

But then, Jadeja shot himself in the foot -- by the simple expedient of holding that press conference and releasing his famous 15-page refutation of the CBI case.

What can one say? As a cricketer, and a sportsman who has come in for more than his share of lucrative endorsement/advertising contracts, one would have thought that Ajay Jadeja could have hired competent legal help. Apparently, he did not.

Any lawyer worth his black gown would have told him that an investigative agency, when compiling a report that is meant to be made public, would only include a sketchy outline of its case, while keeping the really damaging details for the more elaborate, and detailed, report it files for the edification of the government.

Hey, I mean, do you seriously imagine that the Delhi police released all it knew? Have we forgotten that it has in its possession seven hours of tape, of which only a few minutes worth has, in transcript form, been made public?

The CBI report, likewise. What has been made public is not even a tenth of the story -- hey, I mean, the agency, among other things, spoke to over 200 bookies spread across the country. How many do they quote -- one dozen? That is not to say that the other 188-odd bookies had no information to provide.

In fact, the CBI is sitting on a couple of very interesting papers. One details every single payment made, or reported to have been made,

The mistake the Jadejas and Mongias are making is denying what is in the printed report, as opposed to denying their involvement, period. And this leaves them open to devastating counters, by the agency -- which, thanks to the way some of these 'defences' are phrased, will only be all the more eager to make out their case.

The coming weeks, thus, should be full of fun and games -- the circus really kicking into high gear when the CBI releases its report on television deals and assorted other skulduggery.

Frankly, I can't wait. The sooner it is all brought out into the open, the sooner we can put it all behind us and get back to enjoying a game that used, not so long ago, bring us so much pleasure.

Stay safe, all.... see you tomorrow...

Prem

Mail Cricket Editor