* ICC gives ultimatum to Mukesh Gupta to turn approver

The International Cricket Council on Monday gave an ultimatum to Indian bookmaker Mukesh Gupta to become a formal approver by July 1. "The ICC has approved the report in full and will be implementing all the 24 recommendations," ICC President Malcolm Gray told reporters in London after the Executive Board meeting which unanimously approved Condon's findings.

Condon, who heads the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) of ICC, led a world- wide probe into match-fixing and his findings culminated in a 36-page report released last month. He told PTI that a two-member team of ACU will travel to India later this week to serve the ultimatum on Gupta who claimed to have given money to a number of international cricketers and figured prominently in the CBI report on betting and match-fixing.

Condon said he had met Gupta twice in March this year and the bookie had verbally confirmed all his allegations he made to CBI. "But that is not enough to move forward with disciplinary proceedings (against the players). We have to have evidence to bring some closure to all this as otherwise it will be unfair to allow the cloud of suspicion to hang over the players' heads," he said.

"I have given Gupta an ultimatum that it is necessary to let us know by July 1 whether he is willing to cooperate with his evidence either in India or outside. If he fails to heed to the ultimatum, we must assume that he is not prepared to cooperate further," said Condon, who added that the ICC would guarantee Gupta his safety if he agreed to testify before the ACU.

* Cricket betting racket busted

Police in Bangalore have busted a cricket betting and gambling racket, involving lakhs of rupees, with the arrest of 13 people, a top police official said on Monday. Acting on information, a police team raided a building complex on the Race Course road on Sunday and rounded up 13 people who were allegedly involved in the racket.

"Investigation is in progress. We will come to know if it has national and international ramifications only after the probe is over," City Police Commissioner, T Madiyal, told PTI. According to police, Prasanna Kumar and Jagannatha were allegedly conducting the racket. While Prasanna Kumar has been taken into custody, Jagannatha is absconding.

Police seized 23 telephones, eight mobile phones, seven tape recorders, cassette, calculator and cash of Rs 1,64,910 during the raid. It was found that those conducting the racket were accepting bets over phone and jotting them on their book. Preliminary investigation reveled that at least Rs 15 lakh to Rs 16 lakh could have been invested in betting. Police are collecting information on those who offered bets. Meanwhile, telecom authorities said they were examining suspension of telephones of those allegedly involved following the incident.

* Prabhakar denies involvement with chit-fund company

Former Indian all-rounder Manoj Prabhakar on Monday denied that he was in any way involved with the Uttar Pradesh based non-banking finance company which is accused of duping investors to the tunes of crores of rupees. The beleaguered cricketer, who had been untraceable ever since the UP police issued arrest warrant against him late last month, told reporters in Lucknow that the NBFC Apace India had procured the marketing rights of the products of his cosmetics company which he had established about five years ago.

"My relationship with Apace was on company to company basis. My association with Apace has been misunderstood," he said, adding he was not involved with the company in any other way.

The cricketer, already smarting under a five-year ban from playing international cricket for allegedly hob-nobbing with bookmakers, said he had cancelled the marketing rights given to Apace in April 1999. Flanked by his counsel Vinod Shahi and Anil Pratap Singh, Prabhakar however admitted that he had accompanied Apace officials to several places in Uttaranchal during the launch of his company's herbal products and had even played for the Apace cricket team.

On being asked about his signatures on the receipts issued by Apace, he claimed he had signed those against purchase of his own company's products at some places. In fact, he said, he had invested about Rs 25 lakh in Apace and was now trying to recover his money.

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