Mumbai, Delhi, June 2: Manoj Prabhakar's claim that he was offered Rs 25 lakh by a team-mate to sabotage India's chances of beating Pakistan three years ago has brought the subject of fixing cricket matches out of the closet.

Now it can be told that rumours about the involvement of some Indian cricketers with bookies were so strong that Ajit Wadekar, manager of the national team till the last World Cup, had to resort to unconventional methods to keep tabs on his men. In a statement to The Indian Express in Mumbai today, Wadekar revealed: ``After the disastrous South African tour when rumours were afloat in the media about bribery and match-fixing in the cricketing world, I had the telephones of the players' rooms tapped for about a month or so, of course, without their knowledge. I found absolutely nothing incriminating or objectionable.'' Close finishes, dramatic collapses and equally dramatic fightbacks are nothing new in cricket particularly in the one-day version of the game. But Prabhakar's signed piece in the latest issue of Outlook, for which he says he has been promised ``handsome payment'' by the magazine, is certain to irrevocably change public perceptions about how cricket matches involving India are won, lost or drawn. International cricket today is big business, not merely for the players and the organisers but also for the people who bet on matches. From all accounts, the labyrinthine netherworld of big-buck punting rests on a near-invisible network of bookies and sub-bookies where word of honour and, indeed, word of mouth, are paramount. Sandeep Patil, Wadekar's successor for a time, is unconvinced. ``When a player does well, nobody says that he has been paid to play well and thereby `fix' a match. Only failures attract such comments. Cricket is an extremely difficult game to rig.''

Extremely difficult it may be, but not impossible. It is often argued that a team game like cricket cannot be fixed without the connivance of all the members of a team. But this isn't true, particularly in the one-day version of the game. A toss won or lost, a lollipop of a catch dropped, an inexplicably rash stroke when within sight of victory, a suicidal run out, an exasperating crawl when a robust run-chase is needed, can all arguably provide `opportunities' to fix a result.

Prabhakar's `revelation' has, somewhat predictably, sent the cricket fraternity in this country into a tizzy. Says Arshad Ayub, the Hyderabad-based ex-International and sometime team-mate of Prabhakar: ``I feel it is quite a stupid statement. He should have been bold enough to come out in the open (by naming the team-mate who asked him to tank the match).''

But Prabhakar is unfazed. ``Why should I reveal the name of the colleague? What will I get for that? I am a professional now and I seek a price for whatever I reveal. Don't all former cricketers ask for a price for their columns? What is wrong if I quote my price for the revelations I make?'' Prabhakar asked The Indian Express today. If anything, Prabhakar was ``outraged'' that the news magazine had allowed this newspaper a preview of his statement. ``They had no authority to share my thoughts with any other magazine or newspaper without my consent,'' he said. For good measure, he said he was considering suing the magazine for ``breach of trust.''

Bishan Singh Bedi, a former India captain who also served as national team manager for a time, believes ``there can be no smoke without fire.'' But then, ``there is no use (making the allegation) if the name of the colleague is not revealed.''

M L Jaisimha, ex-Hyderabad and India blazer-wearer, too believes Prabhakar should not have made the ``damaging accusation'' unless he was prepared to name the person who had made him the offer. ``If he was scared of risking a defamation case, he should not have made the accusation in the first place,'' Jaisimha said.

Kirti Azad, of 1983 World Cup-fame and under whom Prabhakar had played at the national level, was not particularly taken aback. ``It only reinforces my fears about betting. But, ironically, I had heard the rumour that Prabhakar himself was one of four Indian team cricketers linked with bookies. So I wonder why he is talking about it now. How much of it is true, I have never tried to find out and I was never interested in them,'' the Delhi BJP MP says.

Additional reporting by Jagannath Das, Hyderabad.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.