Advertisement

India-England Manchester Test in 2014 was fixed, claims former manager Sunil Dev

England won the Old Trafford match by innings and 54 runs with India making 152 and 161 runs in the first and third innings respectively.

India-England Manchester Test in 2014 was fixed, claims former manager Sunil Dev

New Delhi: In a shocking claim, DDCA secretary and then Team India manager Sunil Dev claimed that India-England fourth Test match played in Manchester in 2014 was fixed.

The fresh claims of match-fixing in cricket was caught when Hindi daily Sun Star done a sting operation. The video of the sting operation was shown to media persons in a press briefing held at Press Club of India, Delhi on Sunday.

The Times Of India carried a report on the development and quoted Dev as saying in the video: "Given the conditions of the pitch due to rain, we have decided to bowl first in a team meeting but I was surprised that Dhoni opted to bat first."

In the video, he was seen adding further that even former England skipper Geoffrey Boycott was also shocked at Dhoni's decision. Dev also said that it was a deliberate attempt by the then Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni to bat first and he was 100% sure that captain had fixed the match.

The former Team India official also claimed that he had raised the matter to Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and had written a letter to then Board president N Srinivasan which he typed in former chief's office in front of him because he did not want the report to be leaked.

The report then added Dev reportedly saying "People won't believe the truth," when asked had the board take any action. But he admitted that Srinivasan appreciated him for the revelation.

England won the match at Old Trafford by innings and 54 runs with India making 152 and 161 runs in the first and third innings respectively. Dhoni was the top scorer for the visitors with innings of 92 runs (71, 21), while Ravichandran Ashwin made 86 (40, 46).

England batted once, scoring 367 and it was enough to win the match inside three days.