Rediff

Nagpur, Feb 8: The Nagpur police on Wednesday night claimed that they have tapes of West Indian Cricketer Marlon Samuels passing on information to a bookie just prior to the team's first one day international against India in the city on January 21.

In a letter to the Board of Control for Cricket in India vice-president Shashank Manohar and the International Cricket Council, Nagpur Police Chief S P S Yadav gave details about the telephone conversations between bookie Mukesh Kochar and West Indian all rounder Marlon Samuels.

Kochar, who allegedly has links with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, operates from New Delhi and the United Arab Emirates. It is believed that Kochar used his cell phone to call up Samuels on the landline number of Hotel Pride where the West Indian team was putting up.

Claiming to have recorded the conversations between Samuels and Kochar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Nagpur) Amitesh Kumar confirmed that Samuels told Kochar about his team's batting line-up and strategy for the game along with other vital information.

"We investigated the matter thoroughly. Prima facie no criminal case could be made out of it as police have no concrete evidence about financial commitment made by Samuels to Kochar," he said.

Asked if it was another case of match-fixing, Kumar said, "It is not actually a match-fixing incident. It is basically certain confidential team details that were passed on to a cricket bookie.

"We have no information about fixing the match. We have team information being passed. There were certain promises made but we cannot reveal them now," he added.

Meanwhile, denying having received any information on the controversy, BCCI vice-president Rajiv Shukla said the cricket body had started its own investigation. When contacted, a similar view was expressed by BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah.