ICC backs PCB call for corruption probe

The International Cricket Council supports the Pakistan Cricket Board's call for a judicial inquiry into two 1999 World Cup matches, ICC president Malcolm Gray said in Nairobi on Thursday.

"If, from their point of view, this could rid the sport of curruption then we welcome it," Gray said on the rest day in the ICC Knock-out Trophy. "We have asked them to put things in place."

In Karachi earlier Thursday, PCB chairman General Tauqir Zia said his call to Pakistan President Mohammad Rafiq Tarar to order the inquiry did not stem from any outside pressure.

"PCB has requested this new probe for its own satisfaction and to clear the players once and for all," Zia had said.

"Why would the International Cricket Council, or for that matter anyone else, put pressure on us? This is baseless," he said.

"There have been allegations of match fixing in Pakistan's surprise loss at the hands of Bangladesh and then against India, so why not clear all this for good?"

A spokesman for Pakistan's president, who is also patron of the cricket board, said a decision on the PCB's request was expected next week.

Ali Bacher of the United Cricket Board of South Africa has alleged Pakistan fixed two matches in last year's World Cup. Bacher said the information had come from former PCB chief executive Majid Khan, who has confirmed Bacher's statement.

"We protested Bacher's allegations in the ICC's meeting last June but for the sake of clearing our players and umpire Javed Akhtar we want to conduct this inquiry," Zia said.

Bacher also alleged Akhtar had contacts with bookmakers.

In a related development, former London Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Condon will next week brief the ICC board in Nairobi on the workings of the ICC's anti-corruption unit, which was set up in June. Much of the work of this unit is focussed on the two 1999 World Cup matches which General Zia wants to be investigated in the judicial enquiry.

The ICC expects to spend nearly four million dollars to fund the unit over the next three years with hopes that it would help get rid the sport of bribery and match-fixing.

On Tuesday, the United Cricket Board of South Africa passed a life ban on disgraced former captain Hansie Cronje, who has admitted receiving money from bookmakers. The ban, which was widely expected, extends to all the UCBSA's related cricket activities as well as that of its affiliates, a board statement said.

Cronje in June admitted to the King Commission of inquiry in often tearful testimony that he received thousands of dollars from gamblers and bookmakers on five separate occasions between 1996 and 2000. He also confessed that he offered team-mates money in exchange for underperforming in Test matches.

Mail Cricket Editor