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| Sunday, 10 March 2002 |
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Cricket World Cup match-fixing probe set to clear Pakistan LAHORE, Pakistan, March 9 (AFP) - A government probe into cricket World Cup match-fixing allegations to be released later this month will clear Pakistan of match-fixing, official sources said Friday. "The report will be made public later this month but there are no bombshells," an official source told AFP. "The inquiry conceded that Pakistan's World Cup defeats were not fixed and no player is found involved." Lahore High court judge Justice Karamat Bhandari has been ivestigating whether Pakistan's two defeats in the 1999 World Cup held in England were fixed. Pakistan's surprising 62-run defeat at the hands of minnows Bangladesh in the league phase and a 47-run loss against arch rivals India in the Super Six stages were widely suspected of being rigged. The inquiry will also clear Pakistani umpire Javed Akhtar. Akhtar was alleged to be on the bookmaker's pay roll after he gave eight leg before decisions in the 1998 Leeds Test which led to South Africa losing the series to England. The report, sent to President Pervez Musharraf in January, will also be presented to the International Cricket Council which formed an anti-corruption unit in 2000 to curb the problem that has rocked the game. Around 22 former and current players, officials, bookmakers and journalists had recorded statements before the Bhandari commission. The inquiry was, however, hampered by South African official Ali Bacher's refusal to testify. Bacher, a former managing director of the United Cricket Board of South Africa and now the head of the 2003 World Cup committee, alleged in June 2000 that Pakistan played two fixed games in the 1999 World Cup. Bacher said the information was passed to him by former Pakistan captain Majid Khan. Khan confirmed Bacher's statement when he testified before the commission in September last year. Five members of Pakistan's 1999 World cup team which finished runners-up to Australia -- captain Wasim Akram, current captain Waqar Younis, Moin Khan, Inzamam-ul Haq and Saeed Anwar -- denied the allegations before the commission. Pakistan banned former captain Salim Malik and pacer Ataur Rehman in May 2000 after an initial judicial inquiry conducted in 1998 and 1999 by Justice Malik Mohammad Qayyum. Besides Malik, India's Mohammad Azharuddin and South Africa's Hansie Cronje are facing life bans on charges of match-fixing. |
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