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The first one-dayer between India and the West Indies in Nagpur on January 21 has come under the scanner with the Nagpur police claiming that they were in possession of taped phone conversations between Marlon Samuels, the West Indies allrounder, and Mukesh Kochchar, an alleged bookie.

Amitesh Kumar, Nagpur’s deputy police commissioner, said that Samuels was tapped giving information about the batting line-up and the bowling order.. He however said that the police had “no evidence about financial commitment made.” The team details included the line-up and the bowling order, Kumar said.

Kumar said that Nagpur’s police commissioner had sent a report to Shashank Manohar, the BCCI vice-president who is based in Nagpur, and also to the Anti-Corruption Unit of the ICC this evening. “Prima facie it is a violation of the ICC Code of Conduct for players,” he said

Asked if it was another case of match-fixing, Kumar said, “It is not actually a match-fixing incident. It is basically certain confidential team details that were passed on to a cricket better. There were certain promises made but we cannot reveal them now.”

Kumar said the police had informed the BCCI that there had been certain incidents which showed that Samuels was conversing on a number of occasions with Kochar who is an international cricket better. “And we have said in brief what was the conversation, including the bowling order and other details which were being provided to Kochar,” Kumar said.

Asked how many phone conversations were tapped, he said that he was not in a position to disclose any information on this right now but “we will be revealing them to the ICC and the BCCI any further information they might require for taking action against the concerned player.”

BCCI Secretary Niranjan Shah told PTI that the Board had not received any such report from the Nagpur police. “If and when we get the report, we will pass it on to the ICC,” he said.

The ICC refused to comment on the matter. An ICC spokesperson said that the report was yet to reach them. It is however understood that the report had been filed to Niranjan Virk, ICC’s regional security manager based in India.

India had beaten the West Indies by 14 runs in the Nagpur ODI, the first game of the four-match series which India went on to win 3-1. Samuels conceded 53 runs in his allotted 10 overs of the game and followed it up with a 60-ball 40 during the run-chase.

Source: CricInfo.com

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