WARREN GAMBLE looks at the tangle of inquiries designed to put the shine back on the gentlemen's game of cricket
In Delhi's crowded alleys, there is always room for a game of cricket. Small boys dodge cows, washing and rickshaws on their run-ups, crumbling walls cut off cover drives, bare-handed keepers demolish stumps.
The dream is to play for India, reaching a movie-star world of fame and fortune.
Across town in comfortable hotel suites the big boys of cricket's seamy side are still in business. Their equipment is a cellphone, a pager and a tape recorder to receive bets.
The bookmakers also dream of fortunes and are willing to bribe international players to make them. Unfortunately for the once-lofty honour of the game their advances have not always fallen on deaf ears.
It was detectives investigating an extortion racket in Delhi who unwittingly taped a conversation between Indian bookmaker Sanjay Chawla and a man called Hansie in March last year. Hansie turned out to be the South African cricket captain, Hansie Cronje, and the subsequent inquiries rattled the cricket world.
The battle to take cricket back from greedy men and return it to the dreams of boys is now tangled in a series of inquiries and investigations throughout the world.
This year, the International Cricket Council (ICC) - long-criticised for hiding behind the drapes at its Lords headquarters - is trying to get its house in order.
In the past eight months it has:
Formed an anti-corruption unit, headed by former London Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Paul Condon. Sir Paul retired after the inquiry into the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence criticised the Metropolitan Police as incompetent and racist in its investigation.
Sir Paul's cricket unit is investigating an Indian police report naming 15 international players as having links to bookmakers.
Launched a review of a Pakistan judicial inquiry by Justice Malik Qayyum into match-fixing claims against Pakistani players.
It is deciding whether the Pakistan Cricket Board imposed adequate penalties on six current players, including Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, who were fined after the inquiry. Former captain Salim Malik was banned for life.
Started a review of South African Judge Edwin King's independent commission of inquiry into Cronje's confessions of taking money for match information.
Cronje was also banned for life by the South African board.
The anti-corruption unit has visited South Africa and India and will soon be in Australia to discuss the players named in the Indian Central Bureau of Investigation report last November.
The accusations, including those against former New Zealand captain Martin Crowe, were made to police by bookmaking king Mukesh Kumar Gupta. Gupta has since gone to ground.
The ICC has picked up the ball because Indian police did not investigate claims against foreign players.
As well, the cricket boards of individual countries have formed their own independent inquiry teams to look at the Gupta claims.
New Zealand Cricket last year appointed Nick Davidson, QC, and retired High Court judge Sir Ian Barker to investigate. Lawyer Tim Gresson is also assisting, and joined the world body's anti-corruption unit on its visit to India in November.
Likewise, the Australian board has its own investigator looking at Gupta's claims that Mark Waugh accepted almost $US20,000 ($46,000) for information in 1993, five times the amount Waugh has admitted to.
This week, Waugh faced the axe from the Australian team for refusing to meet the ICC anti-corruption unit next month. He changed his decision after being given an ultimatum and an outline of what the investigators wanted to discuss.
Crowe has dismissed Gupta's accusation that he accepted $US20,000 for match information in 1991 as "ridiculous," but admitted being paid $US3000 a year later for what he believed were articles during the 1992 World Cup. He stopped writing them when he realised he was dealing with a bookmaker.
Crowe has not yet been approached to talk to the unit, but has said he will cooperate.
New Zealand Cricket chief executive Christopher Doig said yesterday that the independent inquiry team's report would come to the board first, before being sent to the ICC. The ICC investigators are expected in New Zealand next month but Mr Doig also expects to see them in Melbourne before then.
The ICC also has the power to review any action the New Zealand board takes, but Mr Doig said that until the inquiry team finished it was wrong to speculate on potential penalties.
Under ICC rules which now apply to all members, boards can impose life bans for match-fixing, and five years for gambling or providing weather and match information.
However, those penalties apply only to breaches after 1993. Mr Doig said there were also jurisdiction questions in the cases of former players. "That has yet to be nailed down, to be quite honest."
In India, as a result of the police inquiry, the Indian cricket board banned former captain and idol Mohammad Azharuddin and player Ajay Sharma for life and imposed lesser penalties on former players Manoj Prabhakar and Ajay Jadeja.
In South Africa, the Cronje inquiry head, Judge King, suggested players might need lie-detector tests, and recommended the monitoring of their e-mails and telephone calls.
He also recommended that young players be schooled in fair play and encouraged to blow the whistle on cheats.
King's recommendations are now before the ICC, but the more drastic measures have been dismissed by cricket chiefs because they would violate human rights.
In all the inquiries, no criminal charges have resulted. Cronje was given immunity from prosecution provided he told the whole truth, and the Indian investigation found insufficient evidence to press charges. However, the Indian tax department is still investigating some players.
For a nation whose legions of poor regard their cricketers as national heroes, the thought of their idols' flash homes and cars being the ill-gotten gains of match-fixing would add injury to insult.
Cricket: Getting the greed out of the game
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