Clean chit for Aussies

Australian cricket's anti-corruption watch-dog Greg Melick Wednesday said he found no evidence to support claims by former Pakistani captain Salim Malik that Australian players were involved in match-fixing.

The claims - made on a video taken by undercover reporters from the British newspaper News of the World - related to a one-day match between Australia and Pakistan played in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in 1994.

In the video, Malik said the match - a low-scoring affair - was doubly-fixed so that both Pakistan and Australia were trying to lose.

ACB chief executive Malcolm Speed said the Melick report confirmed there remained no credible suggestion of improper behaviour by any Australian player.

"Mr Melick has conducted a comprehensive and thorough investigation into the Salim Malik claims and established that there is no evidence to support such suggestions," Speed said in a statement.

During the course of his investigation, Melick took the following action:

- viewed in their entirety transcripts of the News Of the World tapes which contain the allegations;

- contacted all Australian players involved at the time and sought any additional information they may have that had not previously been given to the O'Regan inquiry, which also investigated this match;

- reviewed the O'Regan report, including the confidential chapter of the report;

- reviewed all transcripts of evidence given to the O'Regan inquiry;

- reviewed and analysed voluminous material available from the Internet;

- interviewed players who played in the game to see if they had any additional information to provide;

- reviewed the contents of Pakistan's Qayyum Report, which investigated the match.

The ACB will immediately send the Melick report to the ICC code of conduct commission for its consideration.

In the event the commission considers that it is necessary for Malik to be interviewed, this will be done by Sir Paul Condon and the ICC's anti-corruption unit.

Malik has subsequently denied it was actually him on the video

Mail Cricket Editor