Match-fixing: Azhar, Manjrekar slam Kambli

Former Indian cricket team captain Mohammad Azharuddin and cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar on Friday rubbished the allegations made by cricketer Vinod Kambli that the 1996 World Cup semi-final match against Sri Lanka at Kolkata's Eden Gardens was 'fixed'.

"First of all the allegations are wrong. The statements are third-class," Azhar told NDTV news channel.

The comments were made by Azharuddin in the wake of the recent allegations made by former Indian batsman Vinod Kambli who said that he was ´stunned´ by the decision made by the Indian team to field first against Sri Lanka after winning the toss.

Kambli, while participating in a debate on a private news channel, said that he could not forget the match as he was dropped from the squad after that encounter and his international cricketing career received a huge blow.

Speaking about the match and alleging captain Azharuddin, he said that he found ´something amiss´ in that game.

Reacting to these comments, Azhar said, "1996, when it happened, I said after the match that it was a team decision to field first. May be Kambli was sleeping when team meeting was talking place."

"His character was known to me and even to other cricketers. He should be thankful that he could play for India for a certain period of time," Azharuddin said.

He said that Kambli was dropped form the Indian side due to his own mistakes.

Meanwhile, cricketer-turned-commentator Sanjay Manjrekar tweeted: "1996 world cup semi final - The decision to field first may have turned out to be a wrong decision but it was an honest cricketing decision."

Sri Lanka was declared the winners of the match after crowd disturbance had forced the authorities to stop the match.

India had scored 120 for the loss of eight wickets at the end of 35 overs in return to score of 251 runs for the loss of eight wickets that was scored by Sri Lanka.