The Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) has been facing trouble with a few first-class cricketers and a couple of coaches coming under the BCCI Anti-Corruption Unit’s (ACU) scanner as they have been suspected for match-fixing. BCCI’s ACU chief Ajit Singh, although, ruled out the possibility of any international player being included in this. The TNPL, owned by the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association, had started in 2016.

“Some players have reported that they received WhatsApp messages from certain unknown people. We are trying to find out who those people are. We have recorded the statements of the players and we will try to track the senders of the messages,” he said to the reporters in New Delhi. “There is no international player…any player who has got the message, he is supposed to report it to us, it’s part of his obligation,” he added.

“This franchise finished among the last three in the eight-team TNPL table. There are a lot of grey areas related to their ownership patterns. Their choice of players and coaches has also not been above board,” a BCCI source told PTI.

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“Nothing can be ruled out. There is one coach, who was related with a tainted IPL franchise, later coached a Ranji team and was, for one season, related to a TNPL franchise that is under the scanner,” the BCCI source further added.

Although there have always been questions about the credentials of the coach who is accused of match-fixing as to how he is associated with IPL support staff jobs as well as he has the contracts in these state franchise league teams.

“How come this guy, who has not even played proper first-class cricket, is so sought after?” said a source.