Mumbai: Team India’s (ODI and Twenty20) captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has sent a legal notice to the accusers who allege him to be a match-fixer.
Quoting Sunil Dev, who was a manager of the Indian team on England tour in 2014, the ‘Sun Star’ (Hindi daily) alleged that the Indian captain had fixed a Test match and had purposely chosen to bat on a wet wicket, in spite of deciding in a team meeting that India would choose to field first, should the toss be won.
The Test match was lost by India in under three days by an innings and 54 runs.
Reacting to the report, Dhoni’s Delhi-based lawyers C&C Associates have sent a nine-page legal notice.
“The said video contains footage of an absolute dubious sting operation of the aforementioned Mr (Sunil) Dev, which in the present circumstances is nothing but a false propaganda initiated by you to defame my client”, the notice says. “In fact the so called Indian cricket official (Sunil Dev) who you have credited to be the source of information has strongly denied the incident.”
Dhoni’s lawyers (Rajneesh Chopra and Pratik Malik) have asked the publishers to issue denials to the report in the next 48-hours or face a legal case against them.
The notices have been sent to the publishers by the Registered A/D and speedpost.
“Our client (Mahendra Singh Dhoni) reserves the right to institute proceedings for the recovery of damages up to Rs100 Crores (Dh54 million) from you on account of the defamation, mental agony and trauma caused to him due to this by causing loss of his reputation,” the notice says.
