If clean cricket is priority, why not reveal names of 13 cricketers?

New Delhi: At a time when the Board of Cricket for Control in India (BCCI) looks determined to do whatever it can to eradicate corruption from cricket, it is difficult to understand why the sealed envelope containing the names of 13 players accused in the IPL spot-fixing scandal hasn't been made public yet.

Post the landmark verdict by Justice Lodha Committee on IPL betting scandal, when asked why the names weren't made public, Justice Mukul Mudgal, who headed a panel to investigate the contents of the sealed envelope before submitting the report to the Supreme Court, told an English news channel that the apex court had some good reasons not to make them public which is why they didn't do so.

Aditya Verma, secretary of the unrecognised Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB), on Monday filed a new petition in the Supreme Court asking the apex court to reveal names of 13 players who have been named in a sealed envelope by the Mudgal probe committee.

Verma, who was also the petitioner in the IPL spot-fixing scandal, demanded that the report, which includes findings of the Justice Mudgal Committee, should be handed over to Justice Lodha Committee for further inquiry.

It is believed that the 13 players, including six India stars, have played their role in the IPL betting and spot-fixing scam in 2013.

The BCCI had earlier pleaded with the apex court to not make the list public in the hope to prevent damage to the reputation of these cricketers.

(With Agency inputs)