[ESPN]

'Kolkata have nothing to hide'

Kolkata's co-owner Jay Mehta said his franchise's accounts are clean and rejected accusations of match-fixing and betting in the IPL.

The Kolkata team is under the Income Tax Department's scanner for alleged financial irregularities,

"We are law-abiding citizens and it is true that most of our investments in India have been routed through Mauritius but what's wrong with that? So many investments in India come from outside and I agree some of them are not genuine but if you start questioning everything, then what will happen to the corporate structure?" he asked.

Mehta also ridiculed reports that matches in the second edition of IPL in South Africa were fixed.

"If I find out that there was match fixing, I would fight with (IPL Commissioner) Lalit Modi. I don't think it has happened. How much it can be controlled, I don't know. If you look at the security, I am a team owner but even I am not allowed in certain areas in the stadium. Some days ago, I was pulled up for using my cellphone at the dugout," he said.

Mehta, who co-owns the team along with his actress wife Juhi Chawla and Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, denied allegations that Kolkata had evaded tax and also rubbished reports that crucial files were missing when IT officials raided Kolkata's offices in Kolkata.

"We pay TDS, file our returns. We have nothing to hide.

"But the insinuations going on that documents are missing, what's that? That document is an Memorandum of Understanding between the Kolkata IPL team and Cricket Association of Bengal about how we are going to work together. We have them and may be it's the CAB which misplaced them.

Mehta said for all the hype about how rich the league is, KKR has barely managed to break even in the past two seasons and does not expect to make profit even this year.

"We took a loss of about Rs eight crore last year. We barely broke even in 2008. It's only next year that we see increase in profits," he told 'NDTV'.

But Mehta considers the Kolkata IPL team a good investment nonetheless.

"I think it is an insurance for my kids. I just wish, it was more of a sport then what it has become now," he said.