ROB DAVIES AND MARIANNE MERTEN, Cape Town | Monday 5.40pm.
UNITED Cricket Board chief Dr Ali Bacher sensationally blew the lid on international match-fixing at the King Commission of inquiry on Monday, widening the focus to a problem that has had worldwide repurcussions, and alleged that two 1999 World Cup matches were rigged.
Bacher told the Commission that he believes Pakistan purposely lost matches while on tour to South Africa and Zimababwe in 1995, and added that two matches in which Pakistan featured at the 1999 World Cup were rigged.
Bacher said that he was told by former Pakistan cricket official Majid Khanthat that 1999 World Cup matches between Pakistan and Bangladesh and Pakistan and India were fixed.
Khan confirmed Bacher’s disclosure, saying: “Whatever Bacher has stated about me is correct and I stand by his statement that those matches were fixed,” Khan told AFP. “I do not want to add anything except that I did speak to him about these matches having been fixed,” the ex-chief executive of the Pakistan Cricket Board said.
According to Bacher, former Pakistan skipper Salim Malik, who was handed a life-ban for match fixing last month, made strange decisions while on tour, particularly in the one-day quadrangular tournament against India and South Africa in 1995.
Bacher further told the Commission that he was told that Pakistani umpire Javed Akhtar was paid by one of the biggest bookmakers in Karachi to throw the fifth Test between South Africa and England at Leeds in 1998.
South Africa lost the vital Leeds Test with the series hanging in the balance, with umpire Akhtar giving nine of the ten leg-before wicket decisions against South Africa in the Test.
Bacher told the Commission that seven of Akhtar’s decisions were considered dubious.
Bacher told the Commission that Malik won the toss at Newlands against South Africa and decided to bowl first, a decision which raised eyebrows because teams batting second at Newlands usually struggle. Malik repeated the decision at the Wanderers a couple of days later.
He also said the Pakistanis seemed, on several occasions, to be going through the motions and seemed disinterested.
Bacher said that he was approached by the United Arab Emirates Cricket Board to hand VIP treatment to two officials. Bacher was then told by a Pakistani living in London that the two “officials” were bookmakers.
Pakistan then went to Zimbabwe, with vice-captain Rashid Latif deciding not to complete the tour. Bacher said that he believes Pakistan purposely lost three or four matches on tour.
Bacher on Monday told the Commission of a long-time aquaintance with a Bombay boookie — for reasons of personal safety named Mr R — who in 1996 told Bacher that match-fixing definitely took place on the subcontinent.
Bacher met the bookmaker on a flight to Port Elizabeth before the Boxing Day Test between England and South Africa during the 1995-1996 season. Bacher said he was impressed by the man’s cricketing knowledge and said that he knew the game “inside and out.”
According to Bacher, Jack Bannister, highly respected in cricketing circles and a former bookmaker, met with Mr R and told Bacher that he did not believe that Mr R was involved in in inducing players to throw matches.
Bacher then met with Mr R again, twice in South Africa and once in Sydney, usually over dinner. Bacher said he met with the bookmaker because he knew the game well, and that he had received assurances from Bannister that the bookmaker was not involved in match-rigging.
Shortly after the Leeds Test, Bacher called Mr R to ask whether umpire Akhtar may have been paid to make decisions against South Africa. The bookmaker said that it was “possible, but that he did not have any evidence.”
Some time later, Bacher had dinner with Mr R who told him that Akhtar was on the payroll of one of the biggest bookmakers in Karachi. The Karachi bookmaker had flown from Karachi to Leeds shortly before the Leeds Test.
These claims have been included in a report that Bacher compiled over the Easter weekend, and which was to have been presented to the ICC. The ICC has however agreed that the report’s contents may be made public at the King Commission.
Meanwhile, Pakistan captain Moin Khan on Monday refused to comment on Bacher’s testimony, saying: “The (Pakistan cricket) board has told us only to concentrate on cricket.”
The Pakistan Cricket Board, meanwhile, will hold an emergency meeting, mostly likely on Tuesday, to study Bacher’s allegations, officials told Reuters on Monday. “At the moment I will say nothing. But we will meet very shortly, maybe on Tuesday, to chalk out our strategy,” PCB director Yawar Saeed said from Islamabad.