Once a Syndicate Bank clerk in Delhi, Mukesh Kumar Gupta — alias 'MK' alias 'John' — became the most consequential bookmaker in cricket's match-fixing era. After Hansie Cronje named him in April 2000, Gupta walked into the Central Bureau of Investigation in Delhi, gave a detailed statement, and named Mohammad Azharuddin, Ajay Jadeja, Manoj Prabhakar, Salim Malik, Mark Waugh, Shane Warne, Brian Lara, Aravinda de Silva and others as cricketers he had paid for information or under-performance.
Gupta moved from clerical work to high-stakes book-making during the rise of satellite television cricket in India in the early 1990s. He developed a method: cultivate a player with small gifts, then payment for innocuous information (pitch report, weather, batting order), then larger payments for under-performance.
Cronje's April 2000 confession to the King Commission named 'MK' explicitly. The CBI in Delhi, which had been investigating cricket corruption since the late 1990s, was suddenly handed a cooperative central witness.
Gupta was born and raised in the Mohalla Dassan locality of Old Delhi. He worked as a Syndicate Bank clerk from 1982 to 1989 before resigning to bet on cricket full time. By 1988 he was meeting Indian players — his first contact, by his own account, was Delhi batsman Ajay Sharma during the Ramcharan Agarwal Tournament, when he gave Sharma 2,000 rupees as a reward for an innings. Through the 1990s Gupta cultivated dozens of cricketers in India, Australia, South Africa, England, West Indies, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Cronje named him in 2000 King Commission testimony as the bookmaker who first paid him at Kanpur in November 1996. The Australian Cricket Board's 1995 fines on Mark Waugh and Shane Warne also traced back to Gupta. After Cronje's confession, Gupta presented himself voluntarily at the CBI in Delhi in mid-2000. His statement, published in the November 2000 CBI Report on Cricket Match-Fixing and Related Malpractices, named more than a dozen international cricketers. The CBI report was made public on November 1, 2000. Gupta said he had stopped bookmaking in May 1998 to run a jewellery business with his father. He was never imprisoned in India for the cricket-related activities; the principal punishments fell on the players he named.
1988: First payment to Ajay Sharma during Delhi domestic match
1994: Pays Mark Waugh and Shane Warne in Sri Lanka for pitch info
1996 Kanpur: First payment to Cronje (per Cronje's later testimony)
May 1998: Gupta says he stopped bookmaking
April 2000: Cronje names him to King Commission
Mid-2000: Gupta walks into CBI Delhi voluntarily
November 1, 2000: CBI Report published; Gupta's statement public
1982–1989
Gupta employed at Syndicate Bank, Delhi, as a clerk.
1988
First cricket payment — to Ajay Sharma.
1994 (Sri Lanka)
Pays Australian touring players Mark Waugh and Shane Warne.
Nov 1996 (Kanpur)
Per Cronje's later testimony, first payment to Cronje.
May 1998
Gupta says he stopped bookmaking.
April 2000
Cronje confession names 'MK'.
Nov 1, 2000
CBI Report published with Gupta's statement.
“The first cricketer he had approached was Ajay Sharma, whom he first met sometime in 1988 during the Ramcharan Agarwal Tournament in Delhi.”
“MK turned out to be the most critical cog in CBI's investigation. Every cricketer outrightly rejected involvement until his confessions opened the Pandora's box.”
The CBI Report led the BCCI to ban Mohammad Azharuddin and Ajay Sharma for life in December 2000 (Azharuddin's ban was later overturned by the Andhra Pradesh High Court in 2012). Manoj Prabhakar was banned for five years. The international names Gupta provided — including Mark Waugh, Shane Warne, Brian Lara, Aravinda de Silva — were investigated by their respective boards but most denied his accounts. Gupta has lived a private life since.
The single most damaging witness in cricket's match-fixing era. Gupta's CBI statement underwrote the life bans of Salim Malik, Mohammad Azharuddin, Ajay Sharma and Hansie Cronje, and shadowed the careers of dozens of others.
Gupta is the closest thing cricket's fixing scandal ever had to a single explanatory figure. His name appears in the King Commission report, the Justice Qayyum report, the ACB Mark Waugh-Shane Warne disclosure, and the CBI report. His statement remains the most extensive single document on how Indian bookmakers cultivated international players in the 1990s.
Pakistan vs Australia
1994-10-11
On the eve of the Karachi Test in October 1994, Pakistan captain Salim Malik allegedly approached Shane Warne, Mark Waugh and Tim May with bribes of around US$200,000 each to underperform. Australia lost the Test by one wicket. Malik denied everything for years; Justice Qayyum's 2000 report found him guilty and banned him for life.
Australia
1998-12-08
On December 8, 1998, the Australian Cricket Board revealed that Mark Waugh and Shane Warne had been fined in 1995 for accepting cash from an Indian bookmaker named 'John' (later identified as Mukesh Gupta) in exchange for pitch and weather information. The ACB had concealed the fines for three years. The cover-up became a bigger scandal than the original incident.
South Africa vs India
2000-04-07
On April 7, 2000, the Delhi police Crime Branch announced they had recordings of South African captain Hansie Cronje discussing match-fixing arrangements with London-based Indian bookmaker Sanjeev Chawla. The wiretap had been placed for an extortion case unrelated to cricket. A police officer's son recognised Cronje's voice on a tape brought home — and the biggest scandal in cricket history began.