The assumption seems to be that the world only knows of the Cronje saga, when the Delhi Police found telephonic evidence of the South African captain’s misdemeanours in 2000. This, in turn, led to the opening of several cans of worms, culminating in the confession and ban of former Indian captain Mohammed Azharuddin. Those are the high-profile beats. Caught Out skims the linear surface of the body: The ‘pan-Indian’ culture of gambling, the underworld influence, notorious bookie M.K. Gupta, Manoj Prabhakar’s whistleblowing, the Tehelka sting, the CBI investigation, the fan fallout. The commentary is done by former CBI directors, agents, and sports journalists like Sharda Ugra and (Tehelka co-founder) Aniruddha Bahal.
Despite the enthusiasm of talking heads, the narrative framework of the documentary is basic. The archaic BCCI copyright laws ensure that there’s very little archival footage to work with, a gaping hole that’s force-filled by corny recreations of backroom dealings. Older 2023 versions of the officers and journalists fill in for their younger selves – doing important things like typing and writing and walking and scheming and, in one case, stylishly smoking in an introductory shot. A distorted recorded voice of a bookie provides some cheap theatricality. At one point, we even hear the staging of the infamous Cronje phone call, except it’s ‘voiced’ by someone putting on a terrible South African accent.