Was Indian women's cricket team member approached for match fixing?

Match-fixing allegations have tainted cricket for more than two decades. Many men's cricket players, who had a bright future ahead, wasted their career by getting involved in fixing scandals. Now, the new target for bookies in the country is Indian women's cricket, which has come into the limelight in the past few years.

BCCI's Anti-corruption Unit lodged an FIR against two individuals on Monday over allegations of approaching an Indian women's team cricketer to fix matches,  PTI has reported.

ACU head Ajit Singh Shekhawattold PTI that a member of the Indian team informed them of the incident, which took place in February. The International Cricket Council (ICC) conducted an inquiry and warned the person who had approached her.

The international board then informed the Indian cricket board about the proceedings and appreciated the player.

According to Shekhawat, the ACU further investigated the matter and decided to not let the persons involved go with a warning. They registered an FIR with Bengaluru police against two suspected individuals, identified as Rakesh Bafna and Jitendra Kothari.

"She is an Indian international cricketer so the ICC conducted an inquiry into it. The ICC warned the person who made the approach and informed us and acknowledged that the cricketer has done the right thing by reporting the approach," Shekhawat told PTI.

"We followed that inquiry and it was much more than that. If we let that person off with a warning it doesn't make any difference at all. So we went into his other links and connected the dots and we gave it to the police because we have no jurisdiction over them. We have jurisdiction only over participants. So they are going to investigate it," he added.

The case has been registered by the Bengaluru police under four sections of the Indian Penal Code, which includes Section 420, applicable for cheating. 

The incident happened before the Indian women's cricket team faced England in February in an ODI and T20 series. India won the ODI series 2-1 but lost in the T20 series 3-0 at home.

The cricketer reported that she was approached when she was undergoing her recovery sessions at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru as Kothari introduced Bafna as a sports manager.