The Indian cricket board yesterday gave a clean chit to three international cricketers, who were accused of accepting bribes from a Mumbai-based businessman by ousted IPL commissioner Lalit Modi.

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When asked about the world cricket body acknowledging receiving a letter from Modi in June 2013 which claimed that three top cricketers – two of them Indian –had received illegal payments, BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur said “there is nothing in it”.

“Lalit Modi had written a letter to ICC, so they informed BCCI about the letter. The three players are international cricketers and fall under the international jurisdiction. There is no information on these players from ICC so far, so it is in a way a clean chit for them to play,” said Thakur.

“The ICC has sent a press release, they had informed BCCI about the three players. When somebody plays international cricket, the ICC is responsible. It falls under ICC’s purview. They have said that they are inquiring, so only they can answer on this.”

“If there was anything, they could have reported back to us,” he added.

The ICC had earlier acknowledged receiving Modi’s letter.

“The ICC confirms that Mr Modi’s confidential e-mail, which was received in June 2013, and recently been published on Twitter, was provided to the ACSU at that time.

“The ACSU handled that it in accordance with its standard operating procedures, which included sharing it with BCCI.”