BCCI Gives 'Clean Chit' to Three Players Accused of Accepting Bribe

The BCCI on Monday, gave a clean chit to three international cricketers, who were accused of accepting bribes from a Mumbai-based businessman by ousted IPL commissioner Lalit Modi.

BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur said "there is nothing in it" when asked about the ICC acknowledging a letter from Modi in June 2013, claiming that two cricketers from India and a West Indian were paid in cash and kind to the tune of Rs 20 crore each.

"Lalit Modi had written a letter to ICC, so they informed BCCI about the letter. The three players are international players and fall under the international jurisdiction. There is no information on these players from ICC so far, so it is in a way a clean chit for them to play," said Thakur.

"The ICC has sent a press release, they had informed BCCI about the three players. When somebody plays international cricket, the ICC is responsible. Only the ICC can answer as per their investigations. It falls under ICC's purview. They have said that they are enquiring, so only they can answer on this. If there was anything, they could have reported back to us," he said further on the controversial issue.

The acknowledgement of Modi's letter came only yesterday from the ICC.

"The ICC confirms that Mr Modi's confidential e-mail, which was received in June 2013, and which has recently been published on Twitter, was provided to the ACSU at that time. The ACSU handled that information in accordance with its standard operating procedures, which included sharing it with the BCCI's anti-corruption unit," the ICC had said.

On IPL, Thakur was asked about the identity of the player who was approached for spot-fixing ahead of the 2015 edition.

"We don't disclose the name of the players. If a player has been approached, we report it to the anti-corruption unit. We have to look at the detailed report. Once the final report comes in then we will take action. As of now, enquiry is still not over," Thakur added.