Chennai: The names of players not disclosed in the top court thus far, deliberately or inadvertently, and which figure in the secret Mudgal panel report, are thought to be the biggest fish in the game.
Three Chennai cricket administrators or team owners/principals/ enthusiastic persons have already been named in the top court. Three more names of players of a top IPL club are reported to be on the list and their disclosure can be explosive.
The names of three Rajasthan Royals players caught spot-fixing are already in the public domain. By the error of a court official, the names of three others, including two from overseas, were inadvertently mentioned in open court and carried by media overseas.
The national media has been told by the top court to be responsible and not to report the names that slipped out.
Beyond that, the names of the big fish are what may really shake the foundations of Indian cricket, even though at this point it is clear that names of such players have cropped up only in charges made by some before the Mudgal panel. Those charges are yet to be substantiated by investigation. The diary notations of one of the four men named as being under the investigators’ lens are said to have thrown light on some very leading cricketers. There lie Indian cricket’s most guilty secrets, according to insiders.
Besides three top names from among current players, those of several big personalities of Indian cricket, including commentators and retired cricketers, have also cropped up in the Mudgal panel report on the IPL betting and spot-fixing scandals. Of course, most names figure in unverified allegations.
