OWN CORRESPONDENT, Sydney | Wednesday 10.45am.
FORMER Australian Test vice-captain Ian Healy has called on South African businessman Jacques Sellshop to prove claims that Australian cricketers are involved in match fixing.
Sellshop told the King Inquiry into match fixing in Cape Town on Tuesday that he had a conversation with Pakistani fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar on a flight in South Africa in which Akhtar said match fixing is widespread and includes Australian players.
“Claims have to be justified,” Healy said.
“We can’t afford to have claims made without evidence and without that person standing in the inquiry backing them up.”
A letter from Sellshop which was produced at the inquiry said he did not recognise Akhtar while on the plane but was later given photographs and identified him.
He said Akhtar told him match-fixing involved teams from India and Pakistan but said South African and Australian players were also taking money.
However, there is serious doubt as to whether Akhtar was on the flight or even in South Africa at the time. Healy said he hopes the South African inquiry would clean up the game.
“Let’s get it all out there, there’s going to be a period of grubbiness before things can be stamped on and penalties can be put in place before it can be cleaned up at all,” he said on TV.
Healy said in hindsight, he could identify some matches he thought were a little suspect, but was more curious about players withdrawing from games than thinking about corruption at the time.
The world record holding wicketkeeper said he was surprised to hear former South African captain Hansie Cronje was involved in alleged match fixing but blamed South Africa’s relentless schedule of one day matches.
He said the South Africans had endless, short, meaningless tours in lots of different countries.
“I think that’s where these bookmakers got to Hansie Cronje,” Healy said.
“He was a bit annoyed with his board sending them continuously on this merry go round and that may be the point the bookmakers worked on.
“We in the Australian team never had that problem, we like playing cricket and we love playing for our country.” — AFP