The BCCI stopped short of confirming if paceman Morne Morkel was approached by a suspicious element in the UAE leg of the IPL and remained confident that the current edition of the T20 league will not be hit by any off-field controversy.
There were reports that after being approached by a suspicious person, Kolkata Knight Riders’ South African pacer Morkel had alerted the Anti-Corruption and Security Unit of the IPL. BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel said they are awaiting a detailed report. “The anti-corruption unit will take care of the matter and their periodicals will come. It is always part and parcel of the governing council discussion. We are awaiting their detailed report, if there is anything. They are independent to work, ICC and BCCI anti-corruption unit,” Patel said.
Sunil Gavaskar, the interim BCCI President for IPL affairs, said: “The human nature being what it is, nobody can give any guarantees. We have put some measures in place and certainly the way the UAE leg went, it has given us some confidence, if it carries on the same way we will have this India-leg also free from any off-field controversies.”
Asked if it was right to conduct the matches in UAE, which has had troubles in past with spot fixing and betting, Gavaskar said, “If you go by that logic then you should not have matches in India, because even in India there has been issues of match fixing.
“Two or three people who have compromised should not blacken the name of the entire fraternity. Similarly there have been instances in the UAE (in the past) but they have not even been proven. “So without that proof having been there, it is just a perception. I don’t think it is fair to besmirch the name of a country. UAE has been magnificent in the way they have made the efforts.
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