CAB to probe ‘fixed match’

Kolkata: Tournament committee to investigate Bhukailash-Ballygunge league tie
A day after a senior Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) official created a sensation by admitting that match-fixing is rampant in the Kolkata Maidan, CAB chief Jagmohan Dalmiya has decided to look into the strange league match last Sunday that started it all.
The CAB president has asked the state body’s tournament committee to investigate into what went wrong with the fateful match between Bhukailash Sporting Club and Ballygunge United that ended in a draw last Sunday under suspicious circumstances.
“We will look into the matter. I have asked the tournament committee to closely look into the case and find out exactly what happened. The committee will look into the details, the scoresheets, talk to the umpires and people concerned, and let it find out what actually happened. Let’s see what happened,” Dalmiya told The Indian Express this evening.
The match between the two popular club sides ended in a draw, but the scores are shockingly impossible to have actually happened. As per the scoresheet of the 2-day match played over the weekend at the YMCA ground, the Ballygunge bowlers sent down a whopping 73 overs in under three and a half hours on the second day — which is practically impossible at any level of the game. The last day’s play ended at exactly 2pm, but with 61 overs being bowled, according to the scoresheet!
Even the two umpires for the match stayed away from confronting the media over what actually happened at the ground, further fuelling speculation that they could have been involved in what is increasingly looking like a fixed match with a fudged scoresheet.
And then came the stunning admission of CAB joint-secretary Arun Mitra. Asked to comment on the allegations that the scoreboard of the match was cooked up, he had this to say — “Playing got-up (fixed) matches has been a way of life on the Maidan for decades. I am aware of a few matches being fixed this time too. The smarter you are, the lesser the chance of attracting people’s attention.”
This is the first ever instance of a top CAB official going on record stating that match-fixing is part and parcel of the game in the Kolkata Maidan and that it’s almost an accepted norm and out of the administration’s control.
Dalmiya today tried to douse the fire by ordering a probe into the drawn match and later by asserting that it’s too early to jump to conclusions, but the damage has been done.