ICC investigators coming on Thursday

Anti-corruption officials from the International Cricket Council will arrive in India on Thursday to investigate match-fixing allegations, an Indian federal police official said.

"I understand they are coming tomorrow (Thursday)," a Central Bureau of Investigation spokesman said on Wednesday.

The Anti-Corruption Unit of world cricket's governing body will try to meet alleged Indian bookmaker Mukesh Gupta, who has been given until July 1 to substantiate his allegations that he offered or paid money to leading international cricketers for pitch and team information.

The CBI spokesman said he does not know whether Gupta has agreed to meet the ACU officials or make a deposition.

Another senior CBI official said on Tuesday that the federal agency could not force Gupta to meet the ICC officials.

"Right from our first meeting (with ACU officials), we had made it clear it would not be possible to force Gupta to appear before them," CBI joint director Ravindra Nath Sawani said.

"They have to do it on their own. We can only provide his address or telephone number," he said.

ACU chief Paul Condon had said in London on Monday that Gupta had until the end of this month to either appear before a cricket disciplinary committee or make a legal deposition.

Gupta had told the CBI he had offered or paid money to nine non-Indian players, who were named in a report by the agency on the match-fixing scandal released last year.

Condon said Gupta's claims were at the core of match-fixing investigations in India, which exploded last year when South African captain Hansie Cronje was accused by Indian police of taking bookmakers' money to rig games.

Former West Indies' skipper Brian Lara, acting England captain Alec Stewart, Australia's Mark Waugh and Dean Jones, Cronje, Sri Lanka's Aravinda de Silva and Arjuna Ranatunga, New Zealand's Martin Crowe and Pakistan's Salim Malik were named in the CBI report.

Mail Cricket Editor