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Prabhakar tells Tendulkar to come clean

Former all-rounder Manoj Prabhakar has appealed to Sachin Tendulkar to come out clean on why he reversed his decision to force a follow-on against New Zealand last season.

In an open letter through web site cricketnext.com, Prabhakar tells Tendulkar that BCCI secretary Jaywant Lele had told him something dreadful about how his decision to ask New Zealand to follow-on in Ahmedabad last season was reversed.

Prabhakar said that since his efforts, both clandestine and otherwise, failed to persuade cricketers to come out in the open and support his accusations that Kapil Dev offered him a bribe to throw a match against Pakistan in Sri Lanka in 1994, he is seeking the master batsman's help to clean up the game.

"Only you can rescue Indian cricket from the shackles off match-fixing," he wrote.

He further said: "I am not not suggesting here that you avenge all wrong-doings against you, but do not not forget the times when you were run-out.

"But I must confess that my enormous respect for you made me resist intense pressure to get you on camera when I set out to nail the truth that match-fixing was not a figment of my imagination."

Prabhakar implored Tendulkar that his frank opinion will make a difference to Indian cricket's fate and will provide him relief from trauma of being branded as indisciplined and unfit.

The former Test cricketer shocked the country on May 24 with his sensational disclosure that cricketing icon Kapil Dev was the person who had offered him Rs 2.5 million to underperform in a one-day international match against Pakistan in the Singer Cup tournament in Sri Lanka in 1994.

On May 27, he tore apart the edifice of the game in the country by making damning disclosures on the malpractice in a secretly recorded ninety-minute videotape in which he secretly recorded players and administrators making some stunning revelations. The video recording was done by Prabhakar and a team of the web site tehelka.com.

UNI