Remember Manoj Prabhakar ? The man who wanted to cleanse Indian cricket by blowing the lid on the match fixing scandal?

The former Indian and Delhi allrounder, whom the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) banned for five years, is now living the second innings well.

Gulf News caught up with him at his office-residence where Prabhakar lives with his second wife Farheen and son Rahul. Excerpts from an exclusive interview:

Gulf News: So, Manoj Prabhakar has become a successful businessman now!

Prabhakar: Yes. Naturance begun 12 years back when I was a national cricketer. Farheen was in Bollywood and her knowledge of cosmetic products came handy in our business. Now we have more than 257 products and the company is flourishing. I'm happy.

But what about cricket?

At the moment, I really don't know what's there in store for me as far as cricket is concerned.

The exile is going to be over soon.

I'll then write to the board seeking whether I can assist them in any way. Especially, I want to make the youngsters learn how to swing the ball.

The board didn't give me the money I was supposed to get for my benevolent fund. Once the ban is lifted, I'll apply for that too.

Cricket is not there on your daily agenda at the moment?

Who says so? I'm running an academy with my company as the sole sponsor.

I don't want to name them but two of the current Indian pacers come to me regularly for tips.

Your bad times began soon after you moved out of the international scene after the '96 World Cup, isn't it?

Yes. I used to run around eight to 10 kilometres daily with my late friend Raman Lamba.

I still do it for running provides me the mental strength to come out of any situation. Otherwise, I would not have survived all these.

It was definitely the darkest period of my life. The police, CBI on one side and strained relationship with my teammates on the other.

The tension got to my family life too, with my wife Sandhya opting for divorce. The sales tax people were after me too.

Of late, the Indian team is not performing so well in one-day matches. Why?

It's because of their bowling. They are aggressive in their body language but that aggression is absent from their bowling. Neither there is any allrounder.

Mahinder Singh Dhoni is a good prospect. He is in the team for his batting abilities too. So, in him we have an 'allrounder' who has to be used properly.

You were the last of the genuine allrounders we had. How did you develop into an one?

Actually, I was a bowler who liked to bat. When I was in the team, I used to go to the net with my pads on. Batsmen allowed me to bat first but for that, I had to bowl to all of them. And that developed me as a bowler too.

It's said that you're the pioneer in Indian cricket as far as reverse swing is concerned.

Most people don't remember that. Reverse swing is an art. You can't do so just by maintaining the polish on one side of the ball or by tampering the ball. You've to learn it by heart.

Even a batsman of Javed Miandad's calibre had difficulties in playing you in that tour.

It's tough to play against reverse swing, very difficult... Javed was literally searching for the ball in that series against me.

You had quite a successful career, but for the controversy...

Well, my cricketing-career was over after that. But I want to look at it from a positive way.

The Indian cricket should be thankful to me as the controversy helped Indian cricket to survive the acid test and come out cleaner. Why don't people see it that way?