Sreesanth spot fixing: Delhi Police chief says the masterminds are sitting abroad

Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar on Thursday spilled the bigger story on the Sreesanth spot-fixing row saying that the masterminds are sitting abroad.

Kumar said: "Police teams were present in all the three matches that were fixed. The recent fixing happened in the match against the Pune Warriors. The underworld link has also been confirmed in the spot-fixing case, but we can't reveal much now. Bookies have a habit of spotting vulnerable and talented players."

Delhi Police also denied any involvement of Australian quickie Shaun Tait.

Explaining how things were executed, he said, "The bowlers were to signal to bookies before the over. Then concede runs in that over. Ajay Chandila didn't signal, but conceded runs. Bookies asked Chandila to return money since he didn't give signal. There was a confrontation over this issue as well. Sreesanth did stretching exercises as spot-fixing signals to bookies."

He further said, "Three Rajasthan Royals players and 11 bookies were arrested."

Former Indian cricketer Anshuman Gaekwad said, "This incident is highly shameful. A handful of people indulge in such incidents of spot fixing and disregard the game of cricket. I fail to understand why players indulge in spot fixing when the format of Indian Premier League (IPL) already pays so well? I think this is a result of a wrong attitude towards the game. Cheating like this could also be a part of some players that is why they indulge in activities like spot fixing."

Another former cricketer Chandu Borde said, "This game is very, very popular. This game will now have a very bad image of cricketers also, they are being respected, they are so popular but these kinds of things do not help the future generation."

"Just when IPL was going on so smoothly without controversies I woke up to the news of 3 RR players alleged spot fixing. Investigations r on," Rajasthan Royals co-owner Raj Kundra tweeted.