Calcutta, June 24 :     The Calcutta connection apart, K. P. Singh Deo has something else in common with Sourav Ganguly: Even he wears the captain's hat. Of course, Singh Deo only leads the Parliament/Lok Sabha XI, and while he may not make the TV shows as often as first-time BJP MP Kirti Azad, having been elected seven times to the Lok Sabha lends weight to everything the Congressman says. 'Instead of ordering a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)-probe (into match-fixing allegations), the government should have instituted an inquiry by a sitting Supreme Court judge. That was my stand in Parliament; it hasn't changed,' Singh Deo told The Telegraph this afternoon. In town for the annual schools' regatta at the Lake Club - Singh Deo is Rowing Federation of India president - he added: 'The CBI, basically, is the investigative arm of the Central Vigilance Commission... It's not fair to saddle it with myriad probes. 'Yet, the government has added one even though the CBI doesn't have the wherewithal to hold so many inquiries... Also, once it establishes there is a prima-facie case, the CBI will have to move court. The judiciary, then, could've been involved from the outset.' Singh Deo knows what he is talking about: In the mid-Eighties, for close to a year, the CBI came under his purview when the department of personnel was entrusted to him by the late Rajiv Gandhi. While endorsing Union sports minister Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa's view that a time-frame (for the CBI to complete its probe) couldn't be set, for good reasons, Singh Deo felt an open-ended inquiry would nevertheless lead to 'more allegations, innuendoes and the sullying of reputations.' Singh Deo, though, didn't agree with Dhindsa's call that those under a cloud should opt out of the team - be it Kapil Dev or Mohammed Azharuddin. 'Mere charges mean nothing. In any case, should a player/coach be tried through the Media? With a judge in the chair, charges can be refuted and witnesses cross-examined. That's one more reason why I personally favour a judicial probe.' Asked whether he was impressed by the King Commission in South Africa, Singh Deo answered: 'Not everything is being telecast live and, so, one is entirely dependant on the Media's assessment and interpretation...' Would he, too, support a move to grant amnesty, a la King Commission? Singh Deo replied: 'That, I reckon, could be an option if a judicial inquiry was underway... I would have left it to the honourable judge. In fact, now that the CBI is in the picture, the politicians shouldn't seek to 'guide' it.' Had the match-fixing issue specifically been discussed by the Congress, the principal Opposition party? Singh Deo, who has held many portfolios, quickly answered: 'Look, this is something that transcends party barriers... The reputation of the country and its cricketers is at stake...' As a La Martiniere and Jadavpur University student, in the Fifties, Singh Deo grew up idolising Neil Harvey and the late Ray Lindwall. He himself began as an opening bat-leggie and, later, took to opening the bowling as well. Come winter and Singh Deo will be busy organising the next Lok Sabha versus Rajya Sabha game. Today, however, he laughed away a suggestion that such matches, too, had attracted bookies' attention. Given their reach, though, Singh Deo will be well advised to keep fingers crossed.