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•One match on this ground looked like it was fixed. We were shot out in two hours by the West Indies in a Test match.

I was told by those who had investigated the match and was shocked to learn that one of the first matches they said was fixed was played at Mohali. One felt very sad that it was happening right under our noses. We didn’t know at that time, but it is a fact.

•It was the match in which Manoj Prabhakar was injured.

Prabhakar was injured and most of the Indian team was out within two hours, even before the chief guest arrived. We were lucky we finished the match with the last batsman holding on for an hour-and-a-half and the chief guest could arrive.

•Tell me, is the game clean now?

To the best of my knowledge, the anti-corruption unit has done an outstanding job. They impose all kinds of restrictions, even on administrators, but I think it’s good for the game.

•Two things nag me. One, there were many Indian cricketers who came under the cloud and suffered because of the suspicion of being involved. One of them is Mohammad Azharuddin. He looks like the only one who has paid for it.

He is one of the few who have paid for it. Another one who paid a heavy price and lost his life was Hansie Cronje. At least he was honest enough to admit to fixing. The others haven’t been so honest and forthcoming. But it was a malady afflicting the game. You are right about Azharuddin. It couldn’t have been fixed by one or two people, a lot many people would have to be involved to get the match fixed.

•How was Azhar singled out?

He was the one indicted by the investigators. He, along with Ajay (Jadeja), was indicted and the board had to take action because the CBI gave a report and the public opinion was that the board should take action. I was the one to blow the whistle, but I was also the one who invited Azhar to a public function. The ICC raised an objection, and I said, ‘No way, we are inviting all former India captains. The board office is being opened, it’s part of our history and we cannot write off his contributions.’

•Did you ever talk to him, a fine player like that? Did you analyse what went wrong? Or were the times like that?

None of the Indian players admitted that they were involved. They maintained that they had been made scapegoats by the investigators. So it’s very hard to talk to him on this issue. Otherwise he has a good equation with me. He wants to be back, he wants to give something to the game. He wants to be a commentator, he wants to be a coach.

•Everybody else seems to have been rehabilitated as commentator or writer. Only Azhar has been left behind.

That’s because the ICC didn’t allow him to be a commentator in a match in Pakistan. He was asked to leave the grounds. They’ve been pushing it too far. You are affecting the right to livelihood, a fundamental right, for something that has not gone through a code of law in terms of evidentiary value—it’s merely a departmental inquiry.

•Were the deaths of three key characters involved with that dark phase—Hansie Cronje, Mark Mascarenhas and one of his top managers—deaths that just happened or are there still questions to be answered?

All three were accidents, two were auto accidents and one a plane accident. All are unnatural deaths—accidental death is not a natural cause. So you have all kinds of rumours. It’s very difficult to find the truth.

•But do they raise questions in your head?

A number of people do raise questions, but my training is such that I won’t raise questions until I have substantive evidence. It’s not fair to their memory and others, this pointing of fingers without substantive evidence. But there are rumours and a number of people have spoken to me about it.

•Because you know there were really nasty people involved in match-fixing.

The mafia was involved. The underworld was involved.

•And they wouldn’t stop at taking a life.

It is in the realm of possibility, but unless you have hard evidence, to say anything on this would be difficult.

•Talking about charges of evidentiary value, you faced a lot of this when building this beautiful stadium.

Yes, I was told that I faced a CBI inquiry and the main reason was because I was the whistle-blower and people were unhappy. Instead of the ones who became victims of whistle-blowing facing the music, I faced it for four years. They said I had taken the land on nominal lease, as if I had taken it for personal use or personal fiefdom. This is a facility that thousands of players have used and millions are joining to use.

•There was a phase when not too many people came to help or speak up for you.

And you were the one, I remember, who wrote an editorial, a centre-piece article in The Indian Express, at that point of time.

•All that is in the past. Now you are an adviser to the ICC. Cricket is having its longest purple patch in its history.

Yes. It has changed beyond recognition in the past three or four years.

•What does it look like now?

Cricket is operating at a different plane altogether. Unfortunately, this development is mainly confined to India. It’s not a global phenomenon—in major cricket-playing nations, it is only at No. 4 or 5... We need to take it to new emerging areas, China and the US—that is one of the responsibilities.