Mail Today, New Delhi / Chandigarh, Saturday, May 24, 2014 Mail Today, New Delhi, Saturday, May 24, 2014

SportsMail

Bopanna-Qureshi enterdoubles final in Nice

WE ALL called him Nana Mama, that is, in thefamily and strictly off the field. On the fieldhe was feared, like a headmaster, becausehe always played by the book.

Madhav Krishnaji Mantri, India’s oldest Testcricketer, who ‘hung up’ his boots on May23, 2014, was one of the big pillars of Bombay(Mumbai) cricket. He had a huge impact ondoyens such as Polly Umrigar, SubhashGupte, Naren Tamhane and his nephew SunilGavaskar.

When a school-going Sunil tried on hismaternal uncle’s India cap, he was told incertain terms that he would have to ‘earn’the cap. Another story involving Gavaskarand his uncle is interesting. Sunil, after scor-ing a double hundred for Bombay Univer-sity, met his uncle who admonished him forhaving thrown his wicket and not beingunbeaten at the end of the day.

Mantri once dropped an India player, whoturned up late for the match, while captain-ing the famed Mumbai club Dadar Union, on

disciplinary grounds. The club, which Mantriran like a tight ship, produced many Indiacricketers like Tamhane, Gupte, Gavaskar,Dilip Vengsarkar and Sanjay Manjrekar.

Even after his retirement from the first-class cricket, Mantri continued to play forDadar Parsee Zoroastrian (DPZ) along withTamhane, in the 1070s, in the lower divisionsto groom young talent. Once I was leadingthe Sassanian Cricket Club in the KangaLeague C Division and got a call from mycoach Ramakant Achrekar instructing the

team to be present on the ground half anhour before the normal time of reporting.

Mantri once recounted an incident thatoccurred on Sachin Tendulkar’s first trip toEngland (1990) with the Indian team ofwhich Mantri was the manager.

India were to play Derbyshire and themanagement decided to give Sachin abreak from that game. He went up toMantri and pleaded with him to change theteam management’s decision. He wanted toface Ian Bishop, one of the quickest bowlersin the world. The management paid heed toMantri’s advice to play Sachin who scoredan unbeaten hundred in that match.

Mantri’s passing away signals the end of aglorious era in Mumbai cricket. An age,when cricketers and administrators sworeby discipline, dedication and loyalty — a farcry from the realities Mumbai cricket facestoday.

(The writer is a former Cricket Club of Indiacaptain and a Bombay University cricketer)

Mail Today Correspondent in New Delhi

EXTRA COVER

by HemantKenkre

FIXINGto foreAGAIN

India’s oldest Test cricketer,Madhav Mantri, died aged92 in Mumbai on Friday.

Death of 92-year-old Mantri signals end of era

ADAY after the Englishand Wales Cricket Boardtook an epochal decisionto charge former playerLou Vincent — along withNaveed Arif of

Pakistani origin — on com-bined 20 counts of corrup-tion, the New Zealander onFriday said he hasn’tentered into a “plea bar-gain” with the investigatorsfor his disclosures.

On the other hand, PakistanCricket Board virtually disownedArif. On Thursday, BCCI interimpresident (for IPL) SunilGavaskar officially accepted thatbookies had indeed approachedtwo players during the IPL.

These events have raised ques-tions about the effectiveness ofthe ICC’s Anti-Corruption andSecurity Unit (ACSU), whichkeeps an eye on players and book-ies, though with limited resources.

And close on the heels of the leakof Vincent’s testimony to theACSU — and a supposed conver-sation between an ACSU officialwith an Indian bookie during theWorld Twenty20 inBangladesh recently — a41-page power pointpresentation contain-ing details of some ‘sus-pects’ has been leaked.The 41-page documentsays that the ACSUsleuths covered 470matches and 214 prac-tice sessions in 2011. Thetotal number of nights thenine ACSU officials were ‘away’was 1,469 while 1,099 players/sup-port personnel/officials receivededucation programme. “They[ACSU] only did this once, thenstopped. Never presented to [ICCExecutive] Board, I am told,” asource told MAIL TODAY.

An ICC official said “presenta-tions are made as and whenrequested by the ICC Board”.

According to the ACSU presen-tation, in 2011, a total of 124 ‘sus-picious actions’ were reported, 67suspects’ activities were recordedand 11 corrupt approaches weremade. The ACSU’s “source ofinformation” were 24 players, 18officials, 25 members of supportstaff of teams and 125 ACSU‘sources’ while 66 ‘operations’were conducted by it. It revealsthat in 2010, 158 intelligencereports were gathered and 281 in

2011. Giving another peep intoits activities, the ACSUsays that by obtainingitemised billing of cer-tain phone numbersbetween July 19 andAugust 25, 2010, about

300 calls/SMSs wereeither made between

bookie Mazhar Majeed’smobile (+4479****3819 and

+4479****8786) and his Mumbai-based Indian associateBhi**RoShir*** (+9197****7039).

They made these calls/SMSs justbefore the News of The Worldexposed, through a sting opera-tion, that Majeed had inducedPakistan’s Salman Butt, Moham-mad Amir and Mohammad Asifinto spot fixing during a Test atLord’s, London, in August 2010.

LouVincent ofNZ says he

hasn’t enteredinto a plea

bargain withICC

Leaked ACSUdossier listssuspects offixing world

NM | Analysis ofher billing dataconfirmed she wasin contact with anumber of sus-pected corruptors,& known bookies inIndia & Dubai.“ACSU inquiriesascertained thatNM was clearlyusing her charms(honey trap) in anattempt to corruptplayers,” says ACSU.NM made a ‘cor-rupt approach’during 2011 WorldCup & the playerreported theapproach to ACSU.

RS | AnIndiannational, hisidentity wasobtainedalong withthat of ‘RA’.Only limitedinfo could be obtained on RSand RA, hence inquiry could-n’t progress. But throughtheir online betting accounts,a link was established withIndian national SK.

KB | ThisIndian’sactions in SLin 2009 raisedsuspicion butnothing spe-cific. Heobtained UKvisa in 2010 and was moni-tored in London duringEngland-India series in2011. ACSU also accessedphotos of KB in an elevatorof the Crowne Plaza hotelin London on July 25, 2011.

PT | ThisIndian

was firstobserved inLanka in 2009.As with otherindividuals,his actions

raised suspicion but noth-ing specific. In 2010, ACSUsought further info on him,including his phone data forboth Indian and SL num-bers. He was observed atsubsequent matches...

SK | Hewasobserved inSri Lanka(reportdoesn’t saywhen) & fur-ther intelobtained both in SL & India.In 2010, he initiated a poten-tially corrupt approach to aplayer. ACSU action helpedplayer avoid potential com-promise.

NNoottee:: AAbboovvee tteexxtt aanndd pphhoottooss aaccccoorrddiinngg ttoo aann AACCSSUU pprreesseennttaattiioonn ddaatteedd JJaannuuaarryy 2233,, 22001122..AACCSSUU hhaass nnoott iiddeennttiiffiieedd tthheessee ppeeooppllee bbyy tthheeiirr ffuullll nnaammeess,, oonnllyy bbyy tthheeiirr iinniittiiaallss..

DP | Dur-ing the2009 WorldT20, he wasaccompa-nied by hispurportedgirlfriendNM. They ‘did’ some teamsand continually attemptedto approach players. ACSUidentified mobile numbersfor each (India, Pakistan &UK), & they were regularlychanged.

SUSPECTS CONNECTED

RA | ABritishnational, hewas anothermale whocontinuallysought tomeet play-ers both within hotels andnearby casinos. Heoffered casino chips toplayers, further offered toprovide call girls and a‘safe’ hotel room.

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