Australian Test stars to testify before Pakistan bribery inquiry (4 January 1999)

4 January 1999

Australian Test stars to testify before Pakistan bribery inquiry

AFP

MELBOURNE, Australia, Jan 4 (AFP) - Australian cricket stars Mark Waugh and Shane Warne will testify before a Pakistani judicial inquiry into match fixing and bribery here on Friday, cricket officials said Monday.

Australian Cricket Board (ACB) chairman Denis Rogers said the two players, along with former Australian team manager Alan Crompton, were happy for their evidence to be heard in public.

Waugh, one of Australia's top Test batsmen, and leg-spinner Warne were secretly fined by the ACB in February 1995 when they admitted selling pitch and weather information to an illegal Indian bookmaker.

The Pakistan inquiry team sought to interview Warne and Waugh after they apologised for taking money from the bookmaker during Australia's tour of Sri Lanka in 1994 when Crompton was team manager.

Rogers said he was uncertain whether former Pakistan captain Salim Malik or his lawyers would attend Friday's hearing although Pakistan court officials in Lahore said Malik had nominated lawyer Azmat Baig to question the Australians.

Waugh, Warne and former Test spinner Tim May have alleged Malik attempted to bribe them to throw a match on Australia's tour of Pakistan that followed the Sri Lankan tour.

Waugh gave evidence to the inquiry in Lahore last October but did not divulge his links with the illegal bookmaker.

Source :: AFP