Sourav Ganguly Says a Fixing Approach was made in the Syed Mustaq Ali T20 Tournament

The recently concluded Syed Mustaq Ali T20 Tournament is the latest tournament attempted to have been influenced by bookies. BCCI president Sourav Ganguly said that a bookie had approached a player during the tournament, which had been reported to the Board’s Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU).

“Even in the Syed Mushtaq, I was told that one of the players was approached but I don’t know the exact name. But there was an approach made and he reported it,” Ganguly was quoted as saying at a press conference after the BCCI’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Sunday.

He said that the players’ reaction in such cases becomes more important than the approach. “That’s (approach) not the problem, that’s not wrong. What is wrong is what happens after they get approached,” Ganguly said.

These reports have come after similar scandals in the TNPL and KPL in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. With so many tournaments played every year, it becomes difficult for the officials to deal with them and hence it becomes important for the players to hold responsibility.

Ganguly added that the latest reports of the bookie’s approach will be further investigated.

“There are tournaments in Chennai, Saurashtra and Mumbai,” he said. “For Saurashtra and Mumbai, there has not been any complaints, but in Chennai there have been couple of complaints, but we will deal with it.” He said the Board will have to strengthen its Anti-Corruption Unit to deal with these kind of issues.

“Nobody wants this, it doesn’t help anyone. And we will put a system at the two leagues in which betting and fixing happened, KPL is on hold and Chennai (TNPL) has suspended the two franchises.

“We have to get anti-corruption system right, try and put the best anti-corruption, try and make it even stronger and assess it. If it doesn’t work or dosen’t stop, we will have to think of something else.”