[man on tape, in Hindi] Gambling is a part of life.
If not cricket, people would bet on something else.
Our business thrives only by being illegal.
If it's all cash, then it has to be black money.
We are villains, we are not heroes.
[Aniruddha Bahal, in English] I'm passionate about cricket
like any Indian.
The game is a beautiful game.
Poetry in motion.
So, when I started sports reporting,
I never imagined that I would be breaking the lid off anything.
[commentator 1] And India's captain has reached his half-century.
[commentator 2] That is out.
[Bahal] For the millions of fans, these players were put on pedestals.
They were gods.
[phones ringing]
But human beings are, uh, fallible.
And when I started digging,
I found that, in truth,
it was a very different game
and a very ugly game.
[reporter 1] The cricketing community has been stunned.
[reporters clamoring]
You just get really angry. You just get so pissed off.
[reporter 2] Absolutely explosive.
What will happen next is impossible to say.
[Ravi Sawani] The kind of allegations being made,
they were absolutely unbelievable.
[Minty Tejpal] We came up with this plan to target and trap the cricketers
using spy cam equipment, and get the truth out.
[people shouting]
Treachery.
Like you've been stabbed in the back.
[reporter 3] Now, serious concerns.
Can cricket survive?
[commentator 1] Lovely shot. Glorious shot!
[Sharda Ugra] The '90s was the era of superstardom in Indian cricket.
[commentator 2] And he's picked that up very cleanly.
They became as famous and important as film stars.
[commentator 2] What a wonderful catch! That's a brilliant catch!
The unpredictability, the beauty of it, the suspense unraveling…
Anything could happen.
[commentator 2] Trouble! Big trouble.
[Karri] It didn't matter who you are, where you came from,
you can be the hero of the whole country.
[Ugra] We wanted to follow our stars.
[all chanting] India! India!
We saw almost a utopian version of what cricket is.
But when it came to issues around gambling, I was completely naïve.
Betting is illegal in India.
So when we started hearing about bookies,
we knew it wasn't good stuff,
but we were just rookie reporters. We didn't know what was going on.
We needed someone to just unravel everything.
[Bahal] Nobody sees the world as an investigative reporter.
See, initially, I never used to cover sports.
Then, uh, one of our journalists in Outlook, I think, he fell sick.
And so, I became a sports reporter by accident.
So I was always an outsider.
I had few individual friends,
but I was never part of that club, so to speak.
They never broke stories.
They never pointed the finger at negative stuff.
And I felt that they owed their audience much more.
[crowd cheering]
I remember '97…
I was sitting in the press box,
and I noticed there was a whole sort of atmosphere of tension.
[phone ringing]
What was strange
was some of the journalists would, uh, start getting calls.
They were talking about what would happen in the match,
who is being dropped, who is not being dropped,
how is the pitch going to behave.
He was giving them odds.
And then I realized that, "Oh, man! The calls were from bookies."
[phones ringing]
You're not supposed to be talking to bookies from the press box.
That's an ethical concern.
I felt a sense of outrage about it.
That set me thinking. "What the hell is happening?"
How deep does it go? How big is the money?
So, I then started digging, so to speak.
And I managed to find some bookies.
They wouldn't allow me to film them or take photographs.
In fact, they didn't even tell us their names.
But eventually, some of them were willing to talk.
[bookie, in Hindi] Every bookie starts out as a punter.
In college, I had many vices, but no money.
Gambling was the quick fix.
When I got addicted to money, I started making others play.
[phone ringing]
To kickstart the work, we need a whole team.
Many people call this a bookie den.
We call it a shop.
[phones ringing]
[in English] It used to be a madhouse. And the phones used to be all abuzz.
Wickets falling, runs being made, the odds would keep changing.
So, back then, it all used to run on trust.
They have to know who you are for them to accept your bets.
[bookie, in Hindi] Everyone is betting.
Maybe a shopkeeper, maybe a bank manager,
even college students, especially girls.
They think, "Yes, I can win this."
It is a craze. Everybody wants to become rich.
[in English] It was alarming. I remember some of them used to record those calls,
so the punters couldn't go back on what they had bet on.
[bookie, in Hindi] If you try to swindle us, you'll be in danger.
The one who gambles never wins.
The bookie never loses.
This is the truth.
[phones continue ringing]
[Ugra, in English] There was a great appetite for gambling,
and it was pan-Indian like cricket.
You could bet on anything.
So, what is the team score going to be after ten overs?
How many sixes is a particular batsman going to hit?
Punters even place bets on field placings and bowling changes.
And so, for a bookie to have information gave them a huge advantage.
Information was power at that time.
[Bahal] There were bookmakers giving us stories
about how in a particular match the bets swung very suspiciously.
It would raise suspicions, that somebody has inside information.
What is that inside information?
That set me thinking,
did the bookies have power over the players?
[all] Out!
In the '90s, cable television had come
and it brought Indian cricket into every village in the country.
And so, the greatest dream for any Indian boy of that generation
was to play for India.
There was a sudden hope
that even if you were from a small town,
you could become a hero.
A whole new generation of players had come along.
These kids who are coming from small towns.
So it was all very new to them, and at that time,
there were no gatekeepers for access to cricketers.
Indian cricket at that time was filled with these people
who were seen everywhere around the team.
Strange people are walking into the Indian dressing room
who wanted to shower favors on them.
You know, who are these people?
[Bahal] So I started talking to a lot of ex-players.
But a lot of them didn't want to speak on record.
But I always try and dig some more, try and dig some more.
And finally, I found…
Manoj Prabhakar.
[commentator] Well bowled! That's the inswinger, the late movement in.
[Ugra] Manoj Prabhakar,
he was a seam-bowling all-rounder for India.
Great competitor and a fighting cricketer.
But he was always seen as a journeyman player.
A lot of people called him the poor man's Kapil Dev.
He's not a good athlete.
You know?
He is a poor athlete, and that is a very, very big point.
[Ugra] Prabhakar was always very fiery. He had many chips on his shoulder.
[in Hindi] People are of the opinion that your temper is very unpredictable,
and you have said that using profanity is in my nature?
[in Hindi] When you play with passion,
if you are not fired up, you'll lose everything.
If I don't show aggression on the ground,
a player like me cannot perform.
[in English] I was scared to ask questions because I thought he'll slam the phone.
[in Hindi] No one is supporting you, inside or outside of the team.
What's the reason for that? Were you on good terms with them or not?
No one was allowed to raise their voice.
Fear might be the big reason for it.
Because whoever has spoken up, he's faced problems.
[Bahal, in English] Manoj had just retired in '96
because the World Cup hadn't gone too well for him.
And after that, he'd been dropped.
So, I called and asked him, what did he know?
What would he be willing to share?
Manoj had a very gruff exterior.
He had a very contemptuous dig at journalists.
[in Hindi] You don't dare print the truth. You don't have the guts.
[in English] So there was a lot of that attitude in Manoj.
Manoj took a lot of convincing. I remember meeting him several times.
But finally, he opened a lot, he told me a lot of stories.
Then suddenly told me that an Indian player
had approached him about throwing a match.
It was a revelation.
That was the first time a former Indian cricket player
came on record saying this had happened.
There was no question we would run the story.
It was something we wanted to make a lot of noise with.
So I wrote this in, uh, June of 1997.
"India's Worst Kept Secret" which was the first time that anybody
even knew that there was match-fixing in cricket.
And Manoj's famous allegation really caught a cat on the hot tin roof.
[news intro music plays]
Manoj Prabhakar recently created a sensation
by alleging that he'd been offered a large sum of money to throw,
which means deliberately lose,
an international cricket match.
[Ugra] "I was offered rupees 25 lakh
for sabotaging the match in Pakistan's favor."
"I was told to play below my usual standard."
"I told him to get out of my room."
It was shocking, the scale of money.
And the fact that he'd been asked by a fellow teammate to do it,
that was what was unsettling.
Sport is fundamentally meant to be unscripted.
The unexpectedness of it is what makes it special.
If it's scripted,
it takes away everything that sport stands for.
And so we just got the feeling
something terrible was about to break through in Indian cricket.
But I think a lot of people didn't want to believe it.
[Karri] Cricket was suddenly growing, growing, growing.
Match-fixing.
Suddenly that shadow, match-fixing.
It's like on a sunny day you're playing a match,
suddenly clouds, thunder, rains and the match stops.
Match-fixing allegations cast a doubt.
But I think, by and large, nobody wanted to trust Manoj Prabhakar.
[camera shutters clicking]
[reporter] As Prabhakar refuses to name the player
who he claims approached him to fix the match,
critics have wondered if his allegations bear any substance.
His lawyer maintains that as Prabhakar cannot prove his allegation,
it is up to authorities to investigate.
[Bahal] There was a lot of skepticism.
A lot of aggression towards us.
And the officials who ran the game
had an ostrich-like attitude right from the beginning.
Here is a sport that you love so much.
Here is wrongdoing that you know about. But nobody wanted to do anything.
[Ugra] Many in the cricket establishment
did not want to upset this lovely little world.
"Everything is so comfortable, we are so happy, money is coming."
"This is nonsense. Let it not rock the boat."
That story was looked down on and treated so shabbily.
It suddenly just went into a pool of nothingness.
Manoj Prabhakar was cast into the wilderness.
[Bahal] The cricket board was so unhappy
they went and sued us for five crores.
They wanted to put a lid on it.
[crowd cheering]
Cricket went on, but the story was just dying to come out.
And when it actually happened,
the strange part about it is that it happened by accident.
[line ringing]
In 2000, there was a gentleman who made a complaint
that he had been receiving threatening calls
and, uh, people were trying to extort money from him.
[tape rewinding]
We started to monitor the telephones.
We heard some kind of a dispute going on.
Highly abusive language.
Not because of any extortion,
they are discussing something about cricket.
And then we heard, "Hi, Hansie."
"Hi, Hansie."
Who else could it be except Hansie Cronje?
[commentator] And again. Well, this is magnificent stuff from Cronje.
[Ugra] Hansie Cronje was one of the most admired cricketers in the world.
Picked for South African captaincy very early in his career.
Recording for television?
Can I say hello to my mother?
[Ugra] Everybody loved Hansie.
He had the finest qualities.
He was really a cult figure in his own country.
Absolutely a pillar of the community.
[Cronje speaking on phone]
[KK Paul] Hansie Cronje was speaking to a bookie
discussing in detail who is to score how many runs.
[man speaking on phone]
[Cronje speaking]
How much of money is to be paid?
[man speaking]
[Cronje speaking]
Here, there was solid evidence.
Hansie Cronje was, uh, involved in match-fixing.
[Paul] It emerges
that the one-day international cricket matches
between India and South Africa played recently in India were fixed.
One of the conspirators was identified
as the South African cricket captain, Hansie Cronje.
[Ugra] When the news first came,
your first chance to say, "No, it's not true."
Of all the people in the entire cricket world,
you would not pick on that name.
I've never received any sum of money for any match that I've been involved in.
I've never approached any of the players.
First response from South Africa was absolute denial.
The allegations are outrageous.
It's libelous, it's defamatory.
[Paul] Nobody would believe it.
So, whatever evidence we had, we had to make it public.
And then Hansie Cronje felt the pressure
and ultimately, then he confessed.
[reporter 1] The cricket world has been stunned
after a shocking admission by Hansie Cronje.
[reporter 2] Complete disbelief. Impossible to say what will happen next.
[Bahal] When the Hansie incident broke,
there was a sense of, "Finally nobody could deny it anymore"
that there was match-fixing in cricket.
The news environment became so hot.
Could Indian players be involved?
[Dev] This is have to be clean-up job.
If anybody in the world have done something this bad,
should be hanged.
[Bahal] And I was getting very ambitious
about revisiting the match-fixing story, so to speak.
So I started talking to other reporters and that's when Minty came onboard.
[Tejpal] I'm insanely curious. I've always been so.
I need to know the truth, what I really love.
This was investigative journalism.
Hardcore investigative journalism because you were chasing down a story.
So, in year 2000, Aniruddha Bahal, fabulous writer and journalist and myself,
started this company called Tehelka.
It's an Urdu word which means "sensation, impact, bloody hell, explosion."
And our slug line was "News, Views, All the juice." My line.
[Bahal] We had the ambition for cricket match-fixing
to be the first story that we did in Tehelka.
But the cast of characters who were part of it
were still not willing to talk about it.
Everybody went, "Mum's the word."
[Tejpal] I think the only way to get certain truths out
is cloak and dagger.
So we came up with this plan to target and trap
the cricketers and administrators
using spy cam equipment and get the truth out.
[Bahal] This would be the first time hidden cameras
would have been used on a big scale in India.
So, I had to go to London
to get the most cutting-edge tech available.
So for example, we can put it in these glasses.
[Tejpal] Camera fitted in glasses, watches, pens…
Stuff never used in India before ever. We had never seen it.
[Bahal] There was this briefcase which had this whole big recording device.
So now if we had good quality spy cam…
we needed access to those players.
So, Manoj was an obvious choice of an insider.
Manoj realized, last three years, nobody has found anything out.
Nothing came out. Nothing happened.
When I informed those guys, why didn't they take the action?
For him to see cheating in a sport that he loved.
That's like seeing your wife being unfaithful in front of your eyes.
This is not my job to solve the problem.
This is their job.
He said, "How can I prove my innocence? How can I prove this incident happened?"
Nobody was willing to stand up for him.
[Bahal] One of the ways I could convince him was with the tech.
So, I went back to Manoj,
I told him, if you go undercover,
perhaps more will come out and validate your claims.
Then while we were talking about it, I filmed it and he didn't know about it.
Manoj was stunned. Okay? He's saying, "What the hell?"
His eyes lit up. "Really? I can do this?"
Manoj realized that the hidden camera
was the only way to put the cat on the hot tin roof again.
[Tejpal] Over a period of six weeks,
Manoj Prabhakar and Aniruddha Bahal traversed the country
to sting various cricketers and administrators
who were not match-fixing themselves,
but they knew about it, knew it was happening.
Aniruddha Bahal is a fearless investigative journalist.
But Manoj Prabhakar
was going out and stinging his friends and colleagues.
Guys he had played with for so many years.
You need balls to run with this kind of thing.
[Bahal] It was the first time I went undercover.
The fear that you could be caught out
is always there.
See, you're not getting opportunities for controlling angles.
Because that would look very suspicious.
And you're perhaps getting just the legs of the chair, so to speak,
or the heads are cut.
You had to also be worried about…
Has the battery run out? Or has the tape run out?
You would have to take a bathroom break to change the tape or battery.
And going in the loo with a briefcase looks suspicious.
"Why is he…" [laughs]
We would bring in the tapes in, Manoj Prabhakar and me, and then…
Minty's job was to produce the whole thing.
[Tejpal] The first day when the material came back
and we started looking at the footage,
I realized it's going to be a fucking nightmare to do.
[indistinct voices on tape]
Very scratchy audio, strange video angles.
You try and transcribe an interview where you can't see lip movement, girl.
It is maddening.
But even though none of them were involved in any wrongdoing themselves,
it very quickly became clear, we had an explosive story on our hands.
[man 1 speaking on tape]
[Tejpal] These people were saying what they suspected was happening.
[man 1 speaking on tape]
[Tejpal] We were watching the top cricketers and administrators
talking about match-fixing in such casual manner.
[man 2 speaking Hindi on tape]
[Bahal, in English] The Hansie incident created furore.
Then the news environment became so hot…
We had this, sort of, big fear in us.
If we didn't break the story, some leak will happen somewhere.
There was a lot of time pressure on me.
But Minty was this production guy
who wanted to take things one step at a time.
We had shot people on the sly.
We had stung them.
I could not have one word going wrong.
[man 3 on tape]
Manoj, at one point, called me every four, five days…
[in Hindi] "Is the edit ready? Is the film done?"
[in English] Fuck you! This is not bloody, some bloody Maggi noodles happening, man.
This is serious stuff,
and I'm a slightly serious and scary motherfucker when I need to be.
[reporter] An explosive film about corruption in Indian cricket
that could throw the game into chaos is said to be released today.
Hall was filled with some 40 cameras and 100 journalists.
Packed to the rafters.
International media, politicians, lawyers…
The word had spread.
[camera shutters clicking]
[Bahal] The cast of characters was the who's who in cricket.
There was obviously enormous interest.
[Tejpal] We had sent a copy of the tape to the president.
Because we were very worried that our tapes might get confiscated,
and we didn't know if action would be taken.
And then, at two o'clock,
the final Fallen Heroes documentary was eventually shown to the press.
[dramatic music playing]
[dramatic music continues over laptop]
When the tapes first emerged, everyone was aghast.
[man 1 on tape]
I think it broke a lot of people's hearts to see what was happening.
I was horrified to hear officials say cricket's finished.
Everyone's going to leave it.
[man 1 speaking Hindi on tape]
[Tejpal, in English] Our press conference was stunned.
It revealed quite clearly that match-fixing was happening in India,
and the cricketers and administrators, they knew it was happening.
[man 2 speaking Hindi on tape]
[in English] That creates… boom!
[Ugra] The cricket fans were deeply shattered.
You did think that cricket was having a credibility crisis.
[reporter] Unsurprisingly, some of the team's key figures
were trying to avoid the cameras.
I think, uh… Nobody told me anything.
I'm not aware of those things. That's all I have to say.
[reporter] Meanwhile, the board secretary is questioning Prabhakar's credibility.
[Jaywant Lele] Anything can be doctored, no?
I don't want to say anything. Let him do what he wants.
He is proving his own mettle, what sort of person he is.
Thank you very much.
[Tejpal] Manoj was very, very happy that we stuck with him.
We finished the story.
And finally, he told us the biggest bit of explosive news,
the name of the cricketer who offered him the bribe.
I first met Manoj in mid '97,
when I went to him to have a chat about match-fixing.
Even in those early days, he would drop sufficient hints
that the name he was referring to was Kapil Dev.
[commentator] That's out. Yes.
Growing up, Kapil Dev was our hero.
In 1983, when India won the World Cup, he became a superstar across India.
[reporter 1] Prabhakar has finally come forward to name Kapil Dev.
[Ugra] So when Manoj Prabhakar took Kapil Dev's name,
it's almost like challenging a God of cricket.
Oh, who's Prabhakar? Ready to face? Does he have a guts to face me?
[in Hindi] What does Prabhakar think of himself?
What is he even worth? What cricket has he played?
What good has he done?
I have no regrets.
But my aim has always been to clean cricket,
to clean the system.
Today, by doing this,
I have not made any mistakes.
[reporter 1, in English] After Prabhakar's allegation,
cricket fans will be wondering if this is a desperate ploy
or if there is worse to come yet.
[Ugra] In the 2000s, when all these revelations came out,
you cared about how terrible it was, you wanted it to be solved and sorted.
[reporter 2] Today in parliament, several MPs
demanded a probe into the controversial matter.
It became sort of a hot-button issue for politicians to tap into.
[in Hindi] We have heard the views of the nation,
parliament, and our athletes,
and the majority view is that a CBI enquiry is the only way forward.
CENTRAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
[reporter 3, in English] After much speculation,
the sports minister has announced a CBI inquiry
into the match-fixing controversy.
[Karri] The CBI is the premier investigating agency of India.
They have the best manpower resources.
It's a kind of final hope in India.
[reporter 4] With some of the country's biggest cricket stars
potentially involved,
the CBI is expected to proceed with caution.
[Sawani] I was in my office and I was called by the chief of CBI.
They wanted the best investigation.
"Would your unit be able to handle this?"
I was never a crazy fan for cricket.
I was more of an enthusiast about boxing and horse riding.
But the kind of allegations that were being made at that point of time,
they were absolutely unbelievable.
How could we think anybody throwing a game which he was playing for the nation?
So I just grabbed at it. I said, "Why not, sir?"
"It would be an honor. Absolutely."
[reporters clamoring]
The CBI investigation was a massive story. It made for absolutely compelling viewing.
Here at the CBI headquarters, there's almost a veil of secrecy.
Cricketers and alleged bookies will be interrogated in the coming weeks.
[indistinct clamoring]
[Sawani] The eyes of the entire nation were fixed on the CBI.
What happened? What is the truth?
As a muckraker, you have to get into areas which you think are going to be tough.
No-go areas.
Even though this is a very high-profile case
where reputations are going to be made or marred,
I managed to sort of, uh, worm my way
with some of the key people involved in this investigation.
The CBI's expertise has largely been uncovering corruption
in various other facets, but not in cricket.
I don't think they really had an inkling on how big the case would turn out to be.
[Sawani] Frankly, when we started this investigation,
there was only this one allegation made by Manoj Prabhakar
that Kapil Dev offered him 25 lakh rupees.
People did want to know,
is there any truth in what Manoj Prabhakar is saying?
[Bahal] We knew the CBI would be interested in what we had done.
The next thing we knew, the CBI wanted all our material.
[reporter] Prabhakar seems sure that after watching his tape,
the CBI will be able to take decisive action
against some Indian players.
[in Hindi] If you speak with them, you will understand,
I have proven who it was that offered me the bribe.
[man on laptop, in English] Azhar was officially… Yes!
[Sawani] We did glean all the information that was there in those tapes.
[man speaking Hindi on tape]
[in English]
[Sawani] There were a lot of allegations flying around,
but I wouldn't say
that there was any major evidence which could nail somebody without doubt.
[Krishnan] The problem with sting operations using hidden cameras is,
it was mostly anecdotal evidence.
There was no empirical material evidence.
But RN Sawani was a very smart officer.
He was keen on looking at the bigger picture.
[man speaking Hindi on tape]
[in English]
[Sawani] Tehelka tapes did expose the underbelly
in the world of cricket
and showed the role of the illegal bookies.
[man speaking Hindi on tape]
[in English] The CBI had to find out whether players were tainted
and what kind of nexus they did enjoy with bookmakers.
[reporters clamoring]
[Sawani] My team started to gather every bookie
who had ever been booked by any police station in the country.
This spread to Mumbai, Delhi, Gujarat region, Rajasthan.
Within the first week,
we had 209 top bookies of the country in our list.
[bookie on tape, in Hindi] When the CBI agent got involved,
it created a very fearful atmosphere for us.
It was such a big scandal.
We were scared that any of us
could be dragged in.
But the aim of the CBI was not to catch bookies.
Their main motive was to get deeper into this case.
Get knowledge and information.
[man on radio, in Hindi] 83, 58-59…
84, 58-59…
[in English] We found that there was a system called a "dabba system."
[man on radio] 85-8…
[Sawani] It would broadcast the odd rates to all the bookies at the same time.
[man on radio, in Hindi] 85-8, 58-59…
[bookie on tape] A man is constantly giving rates, or Bhao.
Who that man is, no one knows. It's just a voice.
He will say the amount and name of the team
and we make a note of it.
[man on radio] 80-83, 62-63…
[bookie on tape] All over India, and the world,
there is only one rate going, at one time.
We don't want to know who gives these rates.
[Ugra, in English] Every bookie was dealing with somebody at a higher level.
And it is almost like a ladder at which it goes to the person right at the top
who makes all the big money there is.
[Sawani] As we dug further into this investigation,
it became bigger and bigger and bigger.
We found out the bookies were being controlled by criminals…
in Dubai and Sharjah.
Sharjah was this Las Vegas of the Middle East.
[crowd cheering]
Lot of Indians dream they will go to Sharjah to watch a match.
Television stars,
movie stars,
their sunglasses and fashion and all that.
And amidst them all would be sitting a man,
India's most wanted criminal, Dawood Ibrahim.
He was known for controlling drugs.
He would kill anybody who wouldn't give him regular money.
He would be sitting there talking on a telephone
and obviously giving orders on what should happen in the game.
And therefore, those who were in cricket in those days
had to suffer a lot of underworld pressure.
[siren wailing]
[Sawani] You must understand,
this bookie world is a dangerous world.
The crime syndicates are unforgiving to any who break the line.
So nobody wanted to come out and say anything
about what's wrong with the game.
But then a very, very important breakthrough came from South Africa.
[reporter 1] Cronje is to be cross-examined at the King Commission
as part of the latest development in the match-fixing scandal.
[reporter 2] The aim of the commission is to get to the truth of the allegations.
At the same time as the CBI investigation, South Africans set up the King Commission
to look into Hansie Cronje's confession.
I failed in my moral and professional duties.
I was not honest and I apologize unreservedly.
His whole persona had changed.
He literally shrunk down in his chair.
But the most dramatic thing in the King Commission
was when Hansie Cronje revealed
the Indian connection with a global network of illegal betting.
Cronje said that he had been introduced to this bookie, M.K Gupta.
[Cronje] He asked me to speak to the other players
and gave me approximately 30,000 US dollars in cash to do so.
That was a big revelation.
We realized he would be a gold mine for us.
But M.K was not in our list of bookies.
So, we started a big hunt.
[reporter] The CBI hunt for bookie M.K Gupta
started today in Delhi's South Extension market.
Who was M.K Gupta?
No one knew what he looked like.
Now, would he have bodyguards? Would he have bouncers with him?
[Sawani] We went to his house, we searched his house.
We went to his relatives' places.
We found that he had a jewelry shop,
which was being manned by his father.
[Krishnan] I found out from his neighbors,
he did not mingle with people, he kept to himself.
Obviously, I thought he had to do that,
given the line of business he was in.
[Sawani] The moment this news came on TV,
he went underground and was nowhere to be found.
But somewhere, he learnt that the CBI is really after him
and that they would do anything to get at him,
and the pressure was on him all the time to come out.
[Neeraj Kumar] I have always been a cricket fan from my childhood.
I put great cricketers
who would serve the country on a high pedestal.
But in 2000, an informant came up to me
and said that someone wanted to surrender before me.
A guy called M.K Gupta.
I said, "Why me?"
Because I was not inquiring into the matter.
So he said, "Sir, he has seen you in a public meeting
and somehow he feels that if he meets you,
you can guide him."
I felt important. I am like… I am the chosen one.
[laughs]
We decided to meet in a super deluxe hotel.
I was very sure of the informant.
So, I went without any backup.
[doorbell rings]
And a very ordinary-looking person opened the door.
[in Hindi] Yes, sir.
[in English] Please come in.
Then I suddenly see two more people in the room.
Then I became a little anxious.
So I took a long breath.
And I said, "Why do you want to meet me?"
He says…
[in Hindi] "Sir, I am to blame for this entire fiasco."
[in English] "I am at the root of all the problems."
And as he began to talk,
I realized that my tryst with corruption in cricket had commenced.
He was telling me such secrets,
I decided to take him back to the CBI headquarters.
[Sawani] When we brought Mukesh Gupta into the CBI,
he was certainly scared.
If he was to reveal the names of anybody,
his life was in danger, definitely.
But we assured Mukesh Gupta,
"No harm will come to you once you tell us the truth."
And finally, he was willing to tell us his story.
Mukesh Gupta was a graduate from one of the Delhi colleges.
He was initially employed with a bank.
[Kumar] When he would walk home,
at the road corner, he would watch people betting on cricket.
He had never played cricket himself,
but in double-quick time,
he understood all the finer points of the game.
[Sawani] At that point of time, he would also go and watch
kids playing cricket in the local grounds.
[Kumar] He understood that if you spot somebody with talent,
you can groom a youngster.
And that was when he met Ajay Sharma.
[Ugra] Ajay Sharma was a boy from not a very wealthy family
playing in Delhi.
He plays a great innings, he scores a hundred,
someone puts hundred bucks in his pocket and says, "I'm so happy. I'm a fan."
[Sawani] At the time, he didn't realize what was happening
and he felt elated that somebody was appreciating his game.
But bookies think long period.
They will cultivate a player for years and years
before they come up with their first request.
[bookie on tape, in Hindi] We meet them as any normal person would.
We don't tell them we are bookies.
You get to know their weaknesses.
[in English] Gifts, parties, women…
[in Hindi] Alcohol is very useful.
Once you have befriended them,
they are willing to talk.
Then you strike a deal.
[Kumar, in English] And Ajay Sharma rose to be a national cricketer.
And M.K Gupta got so much inside information,
he made lots and lots of money.
And he shared that money with Ajay Sharma.
[Sawani] Once you're in,
you know, it's like the insects who get into the wood-borer.
Then you are caught for life.
Mukesh Gupta would say, "You've told me this, I paid you this."
Perhaps he would even be recording the conversation.
He would be able to blackmail the player.
And it is Ajay Sharma who introduced Mukesh Gupta
to no other person than the captain himself…
Mohammed Azharuddin.
[commentator] That's straight down the ground. It's in the air…
Azharuddin.
-Azharuddin. -Mohammed Azharuddin.
[audience cheering]
[Sawani] That was a big revelation.
It was really, really at the top at that point of time.
The icon for the country.
And any allegation against him
could not be palatable to the Indian public.
Could Mukesh Gupta bribe somebody like Mohammed Azharuddin?
I felt the pressure to find out what is the truth.
-[man in Hindi] Does the color look right? -It's fabulous.
[woman] The color is lovely, but it's not jittering, right?
It's a summer color.
Had I worn a dark one, it'd have been awful in this heat.
[in English] Azhar was never a communicative person.
He's not somebody who can really tell you what he's thinking or feeling.
-This shirt is nice, right? -Very nice.
I didn't wear a dark-colored shirt…
[in Hindi] But I hope it's not jittering.
[in English] Reticent, reluctant, very nervous.
When was the last time you cried?
-Uh, cried? -Yeah.
-I don't think I cry. -You don't cry?
I hardly cry.
All that would disappear when he stepped on the ground.
-[commentator] Lovely shot. -[crowd cheering]
What timing, what grace, what beauty.
[commentator] And again…
And then these wrists…
It was like a slap on the ego of the bowler.
[commentator] Azharuddin is only dealing in fours.
As if God made Azhar's wrists on a very leisurely afternoon,
carving them to perfection.
[clicks tongue]
[commentator] There it is, a thoroughly deserved century
for Mohammed Azharuddin.
[Karri] I remember when he made a century on his debut,
then a second test and a second century.
And then a third century.
Unbelievable. Unbelievable.
He's a hero for the entire nation.
I was, uh, 14 when Azhar came back after creating the world record.
It was huge. It was massive.
The whole Hyderabad was there, greeting him.
You are ours now. You're the son of Hyderabad.
I told myself, one day,
it will be me also on that podium.
[Sawani] Mohammed Azharuddin is somebody who brought laurels to the country.
Why are you filming? I'm telling you no.
[in Hindi] Now go blow it up on the television.
[in English] But as we dug further into this investigation,
we found there were, you know, some things to be looked into.
[in Hindi] There is no need to film. Why are you still filming it?
[Tejpal, in English] During the Fallen Heroes investigation,
Azhar's name keeps cropping up.
[man 1 speaking Hindi on tape]
[in English] A lot of stories was about Azhar's making a quick deal
of 10 lakhs here, 20 lakhs here,
taking a watch from here, buying a Mercedes.
Those kind of deals, too many of them.
[man 2 speaking Hindi on tape]
[man 3 in Punjabi]
[in English] Other players, they felt he had more money than he should.
[Sawani] He had cultivated expensive habits.
Yeah, you are also a very stylish man. I've already seen… very nice shoes.
-Louis Vuitton. Armani… -Louis Vuitton. Armani?
-And the watch? -Piaget.
[Sawani] He wanted very fancy watches.
He was going around in Mumbai
in high circles.
So, uh, obviously, all that needed money.
[Kumar] M.K told me that he could trap Azhar
with relative amount of ease
because by then, Azhar's lifestyle had become such
that he needed lots of money.
[Sawani] Azhar mentioned to Ajay Sharma
that he was in need of some money
because his girlfriend was doing some fashion show.
His requirement was around, I think, one crore of rupees,
which was a huge, huge amount at that point of time.
Ajay Sharma threw the bait.
"There is a person who could give you that sort of money."
There was a meeting organized in Taj Palace Hotel in Delhi
with Azharuddin and Mukesh Gupta.
Mukesh Gupta, being the clever guy he was,
offered to pay 50 lakh rupees on that same day,
and give him the rest of the money a little later.
But it was kind of obviously clear M.K expected a lot from Azhar.
[bookie, in Hindi] To a bookie,
the captain is more important than any other player.
Because a captain has the most information.
If a bookie has a captain on his side, he makes the most money.
[Sawani, in English] As a captain, Azharuddin was able to bring in
other team members to do his bidding.
Get players to underperform and therefore lose the match.
All these cricketers', you know, claim to fame
is that they're playing for India. What an honor!
And selling that honor? Shameful.
It definitely needed to be met with an iron hand.
[Kumar] M.K's revelations were the backbone of the CBI inquiry.
They recorded his statement
and they found supporting evidence.
[Sawani] We picked up all the call records of Mohammed Azharuddin
and they showed he had been talking to a number of bookies.
Even talking to an underworld don.
Mukesh Gupta told us
Mohammed Azharuddin was running a locker in the Taj Palace Hotel
where people would come and deposit money.
And this was corroborated by, you know, interviewing the hotel staff.
He went shopping at the famous Harrods in England.
All his bills were paid by somebody other than himself.
We, of course, found out it was one of the bookies.
After collecting all this evidence, we were ready to call in Azharuddin.
I had sat through the previous night
strategizing on, you know, the sequence of questioning.
There was a little bit of, you know, anxiety there
that let's not do anything wrong.
The captain of the team, he needs to be clean
and if he is not, then he needs to be brought to book.
[reporters clamoring]
[Kumar] When Mohammed Azharuddin came to the CBI headquarters,
all hell broke loose.
[Krishnan] I clearly remember television crews, hordes of reporters.
Could Azhar be involved in corrupting the game?
Can't be. Azhar? No chance.
That was the only thing which came into my mind.
[in Hindi] They are trying to finish his career.
They want to shut him down.
[Sawani, in English] We have specific investigation rooms
where you do interrogations.
All questioning would be across the table.
Most of the players who came into the CBI headquarters
had a scare on their face.
But there were a category of players who knew what they were doing.
I would put Mohammed Azharuddin in that category.
Azharuddin never answers a question straight.
Very rarely would he want to open his mouth.
Perhaps he had been advised, less you speak, the better.
Mohammed Azharuddin actually stonewalled all queries.
So, the CBI officials decided they must change tack.
[Sawani] That's when we confronted him with the evidence we had.
We started listing his properties,
fancy cars, watches.
We showed him his call records.
Even the SIM that was being used by him
was provided by one of the bookies.
The threat was there that we have M.K sitting in the next room.
If you are denying this, should we bring him in?
[Krishnan] That was the turning point.
I think he broke down after that.
[Sawani] And finally, he told us…
[in Hindi] "Yes, I fixed this match."
[in English] He was a broken man.
But I can't have any sympathy for a player who is tainted with match-fixing.
Letting down his nation.
Definitely no.
People connect with the game of cricket personally.
They would cry. They would laugh. They are so passionate about this game.
So, once we found
that there was something wrong with this guy
who was their icon,
they had every right to know.
[reporter 1] In Delhi today, the minister for sport
unveiled the 75-page CBI report into match-fixing.
[reporter 2] The report shatters cricket's long-held reputation
for being a gentlemen's game.
[Sawani] The CBI came to a conclusion that match-fixing was rampant.
[woman] There should be a very real punishment.
I can say it's a heinous crime in my opinion.
[Sawani] Besides naming our own,
he had named nine international players.
[reporters clamoring]
We also came to the conclusion that little was being done
by the administrators to investigate.
[reporters clamoring]
Immediate impact was a big, big bang in the world of cricket.
When you hear that sport which you love and you care about
and you're emotionally invested in,
that this is happening, you get really angry.
You just get so pissed off.
[indistinct shouting]
How dare they?
What kind of people do this?
But then you realize you're part of a whole community
so busy worshipping them that they can't even see what they're doing.
[crowd shouting in Hindi] Shut it! Whoever messes with us won't be spared.
[Tejpal, in English] The only truth about sport that fans care about
is that it has to be clean.
That competition is real. It's not fake, it's not a setup.
But the players broke that bone.
That's dangerous.
[in Hindi] Whoever messes with us won't be spared.
[in English] We wanted to look at,
can we register a criminal case against anybody?
So we took an opinion from three retired Supreme Court judges.
Although betting is illegal in India,
unfortunately, match-fixing is not a criminal offense
and so I was personally dissatisfied
that we couldn't take criminal action against these guys.
[Ugra] I know many who stopped watching cricket after that.
They just gave up. Didn't care.
So, the only way for Indian cricket to return to its equilibrium
was for the cricket board to take action against cricketers that were involved.
[reporter] The board is expected to deal severely
with those implicated by the CBI report.
Cricketing world had to say to its fans,
"No, no, no. We'll not brook any nonsense."
"We will nip it in the bud."
That was one of the reasons Azhar had to be made an example out of.
He had to be hanged publicly
to reassure everybody that the cricketing story is fine
and Azhar was an aberration.
[reporter] In the case of former captain Mohammed Azharuddin,
the finding is that he had a nexus with bookies like M.K Gupta
and that he was involved in match-fixing.
Mohammed Azharuddin
is debarred from playing any cricket matches
conducted or authorized by ICC, BCCI for life.
That's the saddest moment for Indian cricket.
Saddest moment for Indian cricket.
Azhar was like, "The person, the cricketer."
So playing under him was something great.
He lived by example, led by example.
He is a fighter. He didn't wanted to lose.
So, I never believed it.
I never believed it because Azhar couldn't do that.
[Krishnan] Azhar was holed up in Hyderabad.
He went into hiding.
He was drawn into a shell.
I was the only journalist that Azharuddin spoke to.
That drive to Banjara was, uh, definitely nervous.
This is my first occasion meeting the man.
Would he be hostile?
Would he develop cold feet?
Those thoughts were playing on my mind.
He asked me for lunch.
He gave me chicken biryani.
And after which, uh, we sat down for the interview.
He said that it would be grossly unfair to put the blame on him squarely.
He thought that the problem was even bigger.
But the larger point he was trying to send out,
he kept protesting loudly that he was not involved,
that he was being made a scapegoat.
He kept telling me that he would ride the storm…
and he would come out triumphant.
He actually thought
the ban would be lifted if he successfully contested it.
[Ramakanth Reddy] Being a lawyer is my passion, my love.
I've been practicing law for the last 30 years.
Now, after the life ban was imposed,
Azhar came to me and said,
[in Hindi] "Do something about it."
[in English] We have a CBI report which I read, reread and went on reading.
Right from the beginning, everything was not in order.
See, the whole enquiry is based on hearsay.
What Ajay Sharma says, or what, uh, Manoj Prabhakar says.
Or Mukesh Kumar Gupta.
He had lot of endorsements and lakhs of rupees coming in.
He never had any assets
disproportionate to the known sources of income.
So how can we give credence to this whole report?
There is not a single photograph, not a single video clipping, nothing.
It's very bad.
You are saying that you never did anything wrong.
It's complete rubbish, the match-fixing allegations.
-I think so. -But they said
you admitted to some of the match-fixing stuff and…
No. Because I have no chargesheet from any agency.
-So unless-- -But nor has your name been cleared.
Hopefully, it will be cleared.
Azharuddin completely denied that he'd ever told the CBI
anything that was stated in the CBI report.
But after we spoke to him,
the income tax authorities had raided his wife Sangeeta's house in Mumbai.
They had found a fax from Azharuddin.
Surprisingly, he went home and wrote everything that he had told us
and faxed them to his wife, Sangeeta Bijlani.
Point-by-point,
he listed all the various things that he had told us.
For example, the introduction to M.K by Ajay Sharma.
He had also written in the fax about his shopping spree in Harrods.
That bill had been paid by one of the bookies.
So that corroborated that, you know,
Azharuddin indeed had told all that things to us.
He has been consistent all throughout
in saying that he was not involved in match-fixing,
and any confession before a police officer is essentially under pressure.
We were quite certain that he was involved.
Left no room for any doubt.
[interviewer] These allegations came and just ended your career abruptly.
How did you cope with that? What did you do?
Infinite patience. That's the only thing you can have.
I mean, if anybody possesses that, infinite patience,
I think they'll always come out successful.
-Thank you for being on the couch with me. -My pleasure.
Although not answering all the questions that honestly.
Maybe next time.
-We should have another couch with you. -Maybe next time…
[Ugra] Once Mohammed Azharuddin was banned,
there was a kind of a… "Let's move on. Let's move ahead from here."
The CBI report had a huge impact. It changed cricket.
[crowd cheering]
The main thing that we were able to do
was start this process of educating players.
Now they are told of the dangers lurking around them.
How you can be cultivated, how you can be trapped.
So they can avoid getting corrupted.
[bookie on tape, in Hindi] Today anti-corruption is everywhere.
An anti-corruption team stay in the hotel with the players.
[crowd clamoring]
Even if one is able to get the players' phone numbers,
anti-corruption have an eye all over.
But gambling is still big.
No one can leave it.
I have never even tried.
This is my job.
[Ugra] When I look back at that time,
it was almost like growing up.
[chuckles] In sports journalism, it's like saying, "Wake up."
Getting a slap on your fae and saying, "Wake up. This is what real life is like."
And so, for me, the superstars have gone away and faded,
but what I love is being part of the cricket community.
Being part of the family.
[crowd cheering]
It always comes back to cricket,
because it can just set you alight with a piece of action
that you can't find in any other sport.
[commentator] Gone! Off stump…
Unbelievable performance from India.
[in Hindi] I will not be taking any further legal action.
I'm very happy with the court's decision.
[in English] Uh, the case was overturned only on account of technical reasons.
We, in CBI, are absolutely certain
that Mr. Mohammed Azharuddin was involved in match-fixing.
And we said it with lot of evidence available at hand.
[in Hindi] I want to do something in cricket
because I have played so many years.
I would want to share my experience
with the young generation of cricketers.
[reporter] Azhar, uh…
[in Hindi] The board is ill-informed,
and I'm disappointed by its decision,
which I feel is arbitrary and discriminatory.
[in English] I do not think that M.K had any remorse as such.
He had made enough money
and, uh, that it was time for him to,
uh, shall we say, enjoy his earnings.
[reporters clamoring]
Now I can go back and sleep properly.
Nothing… Leave it to the government agencies.
The allegation made by Manoj Prabhakar against Kapil Dev
were not corroborated by any kind of evidence.
The nation's spirit would have broken if they found Kapil Dev was involved.
And to that extent, I think everybody was very relieved
that he's not involved.
[man, in Hindi] Get the car!
[indistinct chatter]
[Sawani, in English] When Mukesh Gupta revealed
that he had dealings with Manoj Prabhakar also,
that… the entire tables turned.
Perhaps he may not have been as bold in taking part in the sting operations
if he had ever known that he himself will be exposed.
[in Hindi] I never expected that this thing would end this way.
I was the one who originally exposed this in front of the public.
If I was involved, I would never have started it.
[Bahal] We don't know the extent, if at all,
of Manoj's involvement in the match-fixing saga.
We did ask him, we did confront him, but he denied everything to us.
You could say that Manoj Prabhakar
was possibly the most gutsy or the most foolish.
You know, in that sense, to me, it was enormously gutsy.