Terming K Madhavan's report as "inconsistent" and "a bundle of contradictions", former India cricket captain Mohammad Azharuddin said the Board of Control for Cricket in India made him a scapegoat in the match-fixing scandal and slapped a life ban on him.
Continuing the arguments in the court of second additional chief judge, in Hyderabad, Azharuddin's counsel, P Jagdish, said Madhavan had approached the issue more with an intention of fixing the former captain rather than finding out the truth.
The counsel told the court, which is hearing Azharuddin's petition seeking quashing of the life ban on him, that though the charges were made against Azharuddin, no specific charge memo was served on him so that he could lead evidence that he is clean in the issue.
In the entire issue the BCCI was carried away by the mala fide campaign unleashed against the cricketer, and in order to appease large public opinion, it worked out its make-believe strategy of appointment of some officer to inquire into this allegation and then fix the responsibility on somebody or the other, he said.
The BCCI found Azharuddin as a helpless scapegoat and hence they made him the victim. It refused to look at the excellent game played by him in the matches, which were alleged to have been fixed, the counsel argued. The arguments will continue on Monday.
The BCCI banned Azharuddin for his role in the match-fixing scandal on the basis of the findings of the one-man inquiry commission of K Madhavan.
