ACU hopes to lessen malpractices by World Cup 2003

The match-fixing incidents in cricket would have considerably decreased by the time the next World Cup is held in South Africa in 2003.

This was stated by the International Cricket Council (ICC) Anti- Corruption Unit (ACU) director, Sir Paul Condon, at a Press conference here on Saturday.

Condon said that no one could guarantee 100 percent that the malpractices could be totally eradicated from the game. However, those had been decreasing with every passing month and after adopting more stringent measures to control them the malpractices could be minimised.

The former London cop said that his report would be discussed by the ICC Executive Board in its meeting in London in June. Thereafter, any strategy would be adopted for further work on the malpractices in the game.

Replying to many questions of a similar nature, Condon said that he was not investigating the affairs of individual players and he had prepared his recommendation taking in view all reports about inquiries held by different boards at different places over the years. That was the reason why he had not named any names in his report.

He said that it was also against the norms of justice to accuse an individual without having any definite proof against him.

The ACU boss declared that he had no bias against the venues like Sharjah, Toronto (Canada) and Singapore or any other particular place.

"I urge for more stringent security measures as bookies have an easier job to contact the players at such centres for their work", he added.

The ACU chief avoided to comment about his meeting with different personalities, saying that it would be "a breach of trust". In Pakistan, he met the Lahore High Court judge, justice Malik Mohammad Qayyum, who had probed match-fixing. He also met the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Lt.-Gen. Tauqir Zia and Asrar Ahmad. He said that his discussion in those meetings were confidential and he was not free to speak on them.

He admitted that the cricketers were being paid lesser remuneration than other leading sports of the world of different disciplines and that could be another reason behind the involvement of cricketers in malpractice.

Condon claimed that good people would have not involved themselves at any price, but bad people fall to temptations.

He revealed that he had completed the investigation into the ICC Knockout Trophy which was held at Dhaka (Bangladesh) in 1998 and the case of Chris Lewis but refused to divulge the findings if there were any.

Replying to a question about the allegations of involvement of officials of cricket boards, he replied: "It was too early to say anything about that because some investigations are going on in this matter".