M A I N   N E W S

Prabhakar names Kapil

NEW DELHI, May 24 (UNI) — Former allrounder Manoj Prabhakar today openly declared for the first time that Kapil Dev had offered him Rs 25 lakh to under-perform in a Singer Trophy match against Pakistan in Sri Lanka in 1994.

Prabhakar made this disclosure during a 10-minute interview on video to Tehelka.com.

Prabhakar said he told skipper Mohammed Azharuddin and coach Ajit Wadekar about the offer made by Kapil. “I was surprised that they were not surprised.” 

Asked how Kapil had approached him, Prabhakar said he was shaving in the bathroom when his room-mate Navjot Singh Sidhu came to him and said that ‘Paaji’ (Kapil) had come with some offer.

The former Indian medium-pacer said he thought it was to do with some sponsorship.

“When he told me that we have to lose the match to Pakistan, I said you want me to sell the country to Pakistan. I am not prepared for that”.

Prabhakar said when he shouted at Kapil, team-mates Prashant Vaidya and Nayan Mongia, who were in the next room also came to know what had transpired.

Prabhakar, when asked whether he was prepared to go before a lie detector, said “why not”.

Asked whether he had disclosed the offer made to Kapil to anybody else, he said the next day he spoke about it to (commentators) Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri. Gavaskar advised that since the match was a big one, Prabhakar should concentrate on it.

On why he had waited so long to disclose all this, Prabhakar said he thought Kapil would come out in the open. “Kapil also knows there is a God. Only God, Kapil and I know what transpired”.

Soon after the video was shown, Prabhakar appeared and spoke to the Press. He said it was now for all those whom he had named — Azharuddin, Wadekar, Sidhu, Vaidya, Mongia, Gavaskar and Shastri — to come forward.

He said all these people supported him whenever they met him but after that for some reason they backed away.

Prabhakar said in 1997 while he was driving home, he was stopped by some people. When he rolled down the window, a gun was put on his forehead and a man said “Pahle Tha Tumhara Career. Ab Hai Tumhari Zindagi” (first it was your career, now it is your life). The man asked Prabhakar to drive on after giving him this warning.

He said he had told this to ICC president Jagmohan Dalmiya but he was not taken seriously.