10 Dark secrets of Indian cricket you all should know

6) Azharuddin in underworld tailspin

In the ’90s, the Indian cricket was completely marred by match-fixing scandals and one of the players who lost his career in one such typhoon is Mohammad Azharuddin. Instead of getting a proper swansong the Hyderabad cricketer got his effigies burned at the end of the 2000s. Even the BCCI imposed a life ban on him for his suspicious activities.

At first the South African player, Hansie Cronje accused Azharuddin of introducing him to the world of spot-fixing. Thereafter the former Indian skipper became a regular visitor to the CBI offices. Finally, he was pinned down after several months of questioning and due to his shady connections with various bookies.

Moreover, very few people know that the turning point in Azharuddin’s case was some of his private photographs. It contained him along with the underworld kingpins. There are also reports which state that he had connections with one of the convicts of the 1993 Mumbai bomb blast. As usual, due to lack of evidence, the case never got solved and all the impending charges against him were dropped in 2012.