Kapil to sue over 'baseless allegations'

Kapil Dev, India's coach and former Test captain, said he is to take legal action to counter match-fixing allegations.

Kapil issued a statement after Inderjit Singh Bindra, the former president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), said that he was told of the accusation by the former test all-rounder Manoj Prabhakar.

"It has been brought to my notice that certain wild and baseless allegations have been made against me in an interview aired on CNN," Kapil said in the statement yesterday. "I have discussed these with my lawyers, who are taking appropriate action against those responsible for uttering these reckless allegations."

Bindra was in London, having tried to present evidence on match-fixing to an emergency meeting of the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Tuesday and Wednesday.

In South Africa, the judge Edwin King was yesterday appointed as head of the inquiry into Hansie Cronje's involvement in match-fixing.

London-born King, 71, nicknamed "Sharkie", is a popular choice among the legal profession. He was Judge President of Cape Province until just two weeks ago. King emigrated to South Africa with his parents as a boy and lived most of his life in Cape Town after graduating from St Andrews College, Grahamstown, in 1945 and taking degrees at the University of Cape Town. He joined the Bar in 1955 and served until his appointment to the Bench in 1986.

It was his work against racial discrimination during the apartheid years that has served him best in the new South Africa.

An all-round sportsman well into his 50s, King says his sporting exploits these days are confined to "regular visits to the Sports Science Institute gym to neutralise the effects of my many social activities".