22 yards of deceit continues....

But, tracing MK was not going to be my only brush with the ills of cricket. Not many know that the first formal case registered ever in connection with match-fixing in cricket was in England in October, 1999 by the New Scotland Yard. The Delhi Crime Branch case against South African cricketers was registered much later in March, 2000. Allegations in the London case, curiously, again pertained to an Indian—Aushim Khetrapal, a resident of Delhi. It was alleged in the Scotland Yard case that he had attempted to compromise Carl Lewis, an English fast bowler and Stephen Fleming, the New Zealand Captain. He (Aushim) planned to pre-determine the outcome of the third Test between England and New Zealand played at Old Trafford, Manchester between August 5 and 9, 1999. Jagdish Narain Sodha, a film distributor from Mumbai and Kamlesh Patel, a British newsagent of Indian origin, were allegedly Khetrapal’s comrades-in-arms.

David Jones was then a Senior Detective at the New Scotland Yard, whom I had met in London in 1994, when I visited the Yard to seek assistance in the extradition of Iqbal Mohammad Memon aka Iqbal Mirchi, wanted in several drug and mafia killings in Bombay. Ever since then, David and I have been friends, helping each other in official work, both formally and informally. (Please see ‘Atithi Devo Bhawa’). Dave, as I call him, telephoned me in late April, 2000 to say that two detectives from the New Scotland Yard would call on me to seek help in an important matter. As always, I assured Dave I would do my best to help them.

To be continued......