ICL suspends Cairns, Mongia for match-fixing

New Delhi: It is being reported that the Indian Cricket League (ICL) on Monday suspended former internationals Chris Cairns and Dinesh Mongia, both belonging to Chandigarh Lions, for their alleged involvement in match-fixing.

Cairns, the former New Zealand allrounder, was captain of the Chandigarh Lions, while Dinesh Mongia, the former India allrounder, was one of the premier batsmen in the team.

According to a report in Aaj Tak, the Indian Cricket League (ICL) is said to be in possession of evidence of the involvement of these two players in fixing matches, while the report also claimed that several other players had admitted to being involved in the match-fixing episode, but had asked for pardon.

The reports of match-fixing couldn’t have come at a worse time for the ICL, who have been pursuing with the ICC their case for authorisation of the league, and the ICC had instructed the BCCI to look into the application.

Cricket was plagued by a match-fixing episode earlier at the start of this decade, when several players, including former captains Hansie Cronje of South Africa and Mohammad Azharuddin of India, and several other players including Ata-ur-Rehman, Ajay Jadeja, Manoj Prabhakar, Salim Malik and Mushtaq Ahmed were said to be involved in throwing matches away in exchange for money.