Vadodara: Former BCCI secretary Jaywant Lele finds himself at the centre of yet another controversy, this time regarding the visit of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim to the Indian players’ dressing room during a one-day match in Sharjah in 1987.

Lele, who was quoted by Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamna on Sunday as saying that Dawood had visited the dressing room and had offered a Toyota car to each player if they won the match, said on Tuesday that the international criminal was introduced to them then as an “industrialist”.

“After the Mumbai blasts in 1993, I and other members of the team came to know about his real identity,” Lele said, adding that “nobody had received any money from him.”

The former secretary, who famously predicted in 1999 that Sachin Tendulkar’s India would lost 0-3 to Australia Down Under, also rejected the charge that some members of the Indian team were involved into match-fixing.

He, however, did not rule out betting on individual’s performance.

Lele further said that he was opposed to the decision of imposing life ban on former captain Mohammed Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja, saying “no charges of fixing were proved against both the players.”