Investigative Reporting Presentation: The 2000s Match-Fixing Scandal

The 2000s Match-Fixing Scandal

Let's start

Presented by:

Karmegam A

Chatoorika SS

Investigative Reporting Presentation

Table of

Contents

^Issue Briefing On the Scandal Journalist behind

The Aftermath

Caught Out: Crime. Corruption.

Cricket

01

Issue

It was in the year 2000 that the Delhi Police intercepted a call between Sanjeev Chawla and the late South African cricketer

Hansie Cronje. The Delhi police closely monitored Chawla and thereafter came to know that the late cricketer had accepted money in exchange for losing a few international matches. Many

cricketers later testified against Cronje. Post the scandal, Chawla who was acting as the bookie fled to the UK. The Delhi

police later filed a chargesheet against Chawla and he was

finally brought to India in 2020. He was later granted bail by a Delhi court. As for Cronje, the cricketer died in a plane crash

in 2002.

02

Briefing On the Scandal

It was in April 2000 that the Crime Branch stumbled upon the match-fixing scandal.

The police were investigating an

extortion case in 1999 involving a D-Company (Dawood Company)

operative from Dubai, Shaheen

Haitheley, which eventually led them to the country’s biggest

match-fixing scandal.

They were looking into the case of a businessman from Karol Bagh who had received a call from Dubai for a ransom of Rs 5 crore. During the investigation, they analyzed the

two numbers from Dubai from which the businessman was receiving the extortion calls and that led them to Cronje

03

Briefing On the Scandal

The police did a reverse call

detail records check on the two

Dubai-based numbers to see if any calls were going from India on

those numbers. That is what led

them to Krishan Kumar, the brother of slain T-Series founder Gulshan Kumar. They found that there were several calls from one number from India on those Dubai numbers.

When they got it checked, they

found the person who was actually operating the phone turned out to be Sanjeev Chawla and not Krishan Kumar. Most of the time he spoke about catches dropped and taken, money, and his conversation with the captains. At that time, the

police could not draw a link with the ongoing matches with South

Africa

04

Briefing On the Scandal

In one conversation, Chawla was heard saying that he was in Taj

room number 346, which is when the crime branch checked and found the room was booked in the name of

Hansie Cronje. So, now, they could establish a link. It was between 8 March 2000 and 19 March 2000 that the police found the men were

conspiring to fix the matches in connivance with Cronje.

An FIR in the case was then filed under IPC sections dealing with

cheating and criminal conspiracy.

Later, Cronje also confessed

before the Kings Commission set up in South Africa to probe the case about his role and involvement in the case.

05

Journalis t Behind

This case was initiated by Ishwar

Singh, the Crime Branch officer. Alok Kumar, now retired, was the

additional deputy commissioner of police (crime) at the time and was also been a part of the

investigation.

06

The Aftermath

The match-fixing saga in 2000 led to several key developments in the sport with corruption being dealt with in a serious manner for the first

time. Besides cricket boards of the sub-

continent, the Australian Cricket Board also set up an independent panel to investigate match-

fixing claims. The scandal, thus, truly marked a watershed moment in the sport, albeit a tainted

one.

⁰⁷

Netflix dropped the trailer of a full-length documentary, Caught Out: Crime. Corruption. Cricket. and we can’t help but be

reminded of the dark times that clouded international cricket in the 2000s. Based on true events, Netflix in its latest outing

sets out to explore the corruption that plagued the cricket

community in the year 2000. Helmed by Supriya Sobti Gupta, the documentary traverses the huge controversy around the match-

fixing scandal that took place over two decades ago.

Caught Out: Crime.Corruption.Cricket

08

Caught Out: Crime.Corruption.Cricket

The feature-style documentary’s

trailer shows us snippets of several media coverages including the

announcement of a CBI inquiry by the

then Sports Minister and a short video of late South African cricketer Hansie Cronje who was the main accused.

09

Hansie Cronje Sanjeev Chawla

10

Thank You!

Presented by:

Karmegam A

Chatoorika SS

Investigative Reporting Presentation

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