Australian board to launch inquiry (12 December 1998)

12 December 1998

Australian board to launch inquiry

By Nelson Clare in Adelaide

THE Australian Cricket Board said yesterday they will launch an independent inquiry into whether any of Australia's 25-member international squad have been involved with bookmakers or betting on cricket. But the ACB said the inquiry would not include the payment by an Indian bookmaker to Shane Warne and Mark Waugh in exchange for pitch and weather conditions in 1994.

The decision to launch an inquiry came after reports that bookmakers had approached Australia's Greg Matthews and New Zealand's Danny Morrison.

"The first thing to do is to expand our level of inquiry to make sure there aren't any sleepers around," said ACB chairman Denis Rogers.

New Zealand's The Dominion newspaper reported that Morrison said he was invited to sell information during a home match against India four years ago. He said he had been offered money by an Indian player. "I looked at him and said, 'Are you serious?'," Morrison said.

The Australian newspaper said that Matthews had been approached by a man in Sri Lanka in 1992 and offered money to provide information, but that he had rejected the approach outright.

In Lahore, former Pakistan captain Imran Khan said that admissions by Waugh and Warne had been blown out of all proportion. Imran said the whole episode was "trivial", adding: "I think the only confusion is why it has been declared so late."

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)