New Delhi: Sports Minister Ajay Maken and the cricket authorities were on different wavelengths on former cricketer Vinod Kambli's charge that the 1996 World Cup semi-final between India and Sri Lanka could have been fixed.
While Maken said that the allegation needs to be investigated properly, BCCI and International Cricket Council (ICC) president Sharad Pawar said the matter need not be given any importance.
Maken even hinted that his ministry will have to probe Kambli's charge, if the cricket board does not do it on its own.
"If there is any truth to this [allegation], then a probe should be conducted. The nation and cricket fans have the right to know the truth. It was a world-cup semi-final and the whole country must have been watching," Maken told reporters here.
"It should be investigated properly. I think we should go to the root of it so that we can know the truth."
Maken said if the BCCI doesn't initiate action, the sports ministry may conduct an inquiry.
"We will see. As you know, the BCCI has not come to the sports ministry for any recognition so far, but I would want, whatever agency is there, BCCI should order a probe into it. If the BCCI doesn't conduct a probe, we will look at it," he said.
‘Irresponsible'
"We can't take the charge lightly. The ministry will intervene if the BCCI does not take any action," he said.
ICC president Sharad Pawar dismissed Kambli's allegations as ‘irresponsible.'
"I honestly feel that his allegations are irresponsible statements," Pawar said. "If he was an honest and a committed cricketer he should have spoken about it then. But he kept quiet, so I hold him irresponsible," said Pawar.
