The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Fleming claims he was approached by Indian bookie

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Monday, Nov 08, 2004

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Sport - Cricket

Fleming claims he was approached by Indian bookie

By P. Subramanyam

LONDON, NOV. 7. In a sensational manner, New Zealand cricket captain Stephen Fleming claims that he was offered £200,000 ($370,000) by an Indian businessman to join a match-fixing syndicate in 1999.

This was disclosed in his new official biography titled `Balance Of Power,' co-written by New Zealand journalist Richard Boock, according to the BBC Sport on Sunday.

Fleming describes being approached at a hotel in Leicestershire during the World Cup in England in 1999 and endorses that in his conversation with sports promoter, Aushim Khetrapal: "He said there were top athletes involved," and added, "if you want to know where the real money is... it's in the syndicate that's going on around the world."

Really?

Moving from cricket to football and tennis, Khetrapal, an associate of notorious Indian bookmaker Sanjeev Chawla, asked Fleming if he had noticed that "Manchester United had been upset the other day, and that Andre Agassi had been eliminated from a major.

"He said that those things are not coincidences. At this stage, `I said, really?'" writes Fleming in his book.

Fleming said that Khetrapal claimed there were people all over the world that he could call at certain times, then offered him (Fleming) the lucrative chance to join the syndicate.

The New Zealand captain asserts in his book: "He'd pay me £200,000 straight up, then another £100,000 in a year's time.

"I remember looking at the number he'd written down and saying, `look, I don't think we should be talking about this anymore. I don't really want to be part of this at all.'"

Fleming claims that he was shocked by the offer and promptly informed the then team manager, John Graham and gave a statement to Scotland Yard detectives, who flew to New Zealand in 2000.

Six months later, England all-rounder, Chris Lewis went public with similar claims.

Khetrapal denied the allegation that he offered £300,000 to Lewis to persuade England players to throw a Test against New Zealand.

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