OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Wednesday 11.35am.
ALLEGATIONS made by a Johannesburg lawyer that Dr Ali Bacher was involved in arranging extra payment for a West Indies side to lose a match in South Africa have been strongly denied by the United Cricket Board chief.
In a statement submitted to the King Commission of Inquiry on Tuesday, Peter Soller alleges that Bacher, himself and a sports promotor Richard Tessel negotiated a deal with a touring West Indies rebel side to lose a match in the mid-eighties.
John Bacon secretary of the Commission told Afrikaans daily Beeld that he received the statement made by Soller and that the allegations against Bacher will be investigated as a matter of urgency. Soller says in the statement that he was called to the Wanderers cricket ground by Tessel during a one-dayer between South Africa and the touring West Indies.
Soller alleges that Tessel said that he was involved in making arrangements on tour, and that the Windies said that they would not resume play after lunch because they weren’t being paid enough. Tessel then allegedly told Soller to negotiate with the West Indians.
Soller’s statement says: “I spoke in the West Indians’ change rooms to the captain, Lawrence Rowe, among others. At one point the late Atholl McKinnon, then media representative for the Windies, asked me to go to another place in the Wanderers where Dr Ali Bacher was waiting for me.
“At first Dr Bacher threatened to summons the Windies for breach of contract. After discussions between Mr Tessel and Dr Bacher the three of us agreed that if the Windies agreed to blow the match they would be paid extra as an inducement.”
The statement continues: “After another protracted session of negotiations with the Windies players, they agreed to go back on the playing field and lose the match.”
No indication is given in the statement of the amount of money involved.
Bacher told Beeld that he denies ever being party to match-fixing. He added that he remembers the match at the Wanderers and also recalls the pay dispute. “I never made an offer that they would receive more money if they deliberately lost the match,” Bacher said.
Soller said that he stands by his allegations.