ICC team meets CBI officials
Onkar Singh
The six-member International Cricket Council anti-corruption team, led by Sir Paul Condon, called on officials of the Central Bureau of Investigation and held discussions with them for over two-and-a-half hours on the agency's match-fixing report.
Besides Sir Paul Condon, the other members of the team are Martin Hawkins, Bob Smalleyn (all ICC investigators), Greg Melick of Australia, Desmond Fernando of Sri
Lanka and Tim Gragresson of New Zealand.
Condon however refused to comment on the meeting. "There is
a press conference tomorrow," he said, when
asked if the team's discussions with the CBI
officials were useful.
CBI joint commissioner R N Sawani, who led the
investigation into the match-fixing scandal, later told
rediff.com the meeting was good.
"Sir Paul Condon understood our difficulties
because he is a former commissioner of Scotland
Yard," Sawani said.
According official spokesman S M Khan, the investigators from Australia, New Zealand
and Sri Lanka were interested in knowing more about
players from their countries.
"Naturally, they asked for more details
about their respective players. The New Zealander was more
interested in knowing about Martin Crowe, while the
Australian wanted to get more details about Mark
Waugh. Fernando from Sri Lanka likewise was more
interested in details about Arjuna Ranatunga and
Aravinda D'Silva.
"We will give them whatever assistance
we can and help them in carrying out their
investigations," said Khan.
Asked whether the CBI would help the investigators in arranging a
meeting with bookie Mukesh Gupta, Khan said they could do so on their own and CBI has nothing to do in the matter.
According to insiders the CBI has not closed its investigation in the match-fixing case and is still
looking for evidence against some players
who have not been named in its report. They are
also looking for some bookies who were not
available earlier.
Condon and two members of his unit also had a 45-minute meeting with Delhi police joint commissioner Dr K K Paul. It is learnt that they enquired how the Delhi police went about nailing Hansie Cronje and also congratulated the commissioner for exposing the nexus between cricketers and bookies.
Mail Cricket Editor