Cricket: O'Brien unsurprised at Vincent revelations

Lou Vincent. Photo / NZPA / Ross Setford

New Zealand test cricketers confronted Lou Vincent about his suspicious involvement in the Indian Cricket League, according to former teammate Iain O'Brien.

Several members of the Black Caps squad, while on a tour of Bangladesh in 2008, sent Vincent text messages calling him a cheat after watching his questionable play at the crease in the ICL.

In an explosive column in the UK's Telegraph, O'Brien revealed Vincent was fooling no one and said it was unsurprising to hear he was being investigated by the ICC.

"The New Zealand team watched a lot of the Indian Cricket League,'' O'Brien wrote. ``We watched some of the most unbelievable cricket. Unbelievable in a way that we could not believe how obvious what was going on.

"And this included Lou Vincent. He had walked away from a New Zealand contract to take part in a lucrative league. We knew what was going on. Without a shadow of doubt Lou was fixing.

"Players who had Lou's number would text him with some rather unpleasant messages about what he was doing. He was called a `fixer', a `cheat' and many more unprintable things.''

O'Brien also accused Vincent of fixing when the pair met four years later in London. He said the batsman's denied any involvement, outright rejecting the line of questioning.

"I showed him a scorecard from a game I had watched live. I had the scorecard saved as a bookmark on my phone browser so that we could talk specifics. I showed it to him. He put his one run from nine balls, playing out a first-over maiden, to just good bowling. I called that `rubbish'.

"Lou is a quality player. For a fix he promised to score, 30 inside three overs. He failed, but a player with that quality does not score one from nine balls. I have not spoken to Lou since.''

"And this included Lou Vincent. He had walked away from a New Zealand contract to take part in a lucrative league. We knew what was going on.

"Without a shadow of doubt Lou was fixing. From our Bangladesh telephone sims (when touring, typically, we buy or are provided with a local sim), players who had Lou's number would text him with some rather unpleasant messages about what he was doing. He was called a "fixer", a "cheat" and many more unprintable things."

Read the full column here.