OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Wednesday 4.00pm.
THE King commission into match-fixing would be willing to travel to India to listen to tapes being held as evidence in a case against former cricket captain Hansie Cronje, an official said on Wednesday.
Commission secretary John Bacon said a trip to Delhi would be considered if the Indian authorities vetoed the commission’s request for the tapes.
The recordings are purportedly of converations between the disgraced cricketer and a bookmaker.
”We need to be able to listen to the tapes or at least to properly authenticated copies of them,” Bacon said. ”If that means we have to go to India, then we’ll do that.”
The South African government has made a formal request to its Indian counterpart for access to the recordings, but as yet it has not been granted.
The tapes are central to the charges laid by Indian police on April 7 which implicated Cronje, Herschelle Gibbs, Nicky Boje and Pieter Strydom in match-fixing.
All have denied the charges, but Cronje was sacked as South Africa’s captain after admitting to taking money from bookmakers for providing information. — Reuters