CBI keen to question Ajay Sharma

With the Central Bureau of Investigation having completed its questioning of a key figure like Ajay Jadeja - even if his evidence did not in any way resolve the deadlock - the agency officials are reportedly very keen on a session with former Indian cricketer Ajay Sharma, whose name has been linked, in particular, with former Indian captain Md Azharuddin.

Sharma is contracted to playing league matches in England till September but the CBI, it seems, is trying to see if it can speak to him earlier than that. It's on the cards that they will be able to. But the fact remains that sooner or rather, the sleuths definitely want to speak to Sharma. Reports have it that Sharma's testimony could be valuable to the officials.

In the meantime, the CBI is waiting for former Indian captains Ravi Shastri and Sunil Gavaskar to depose before the agency. Finally on the agenda is current Indian coach Kapil Dev. Only then will the CBI be in a position to reach any satisfactory conclusions on the whole business of betting and match fixing.

Across the border, Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Gen. Tauqir Zia said Pakistan would co-operate with International Cricket Council corruption inquiries as long as they do not investigate alleged match fixing by local stars. Talking to a news agency in Karachi, he said Pakistan would again object to the appointment of Paul Condon to lead ICC's anti-corruption unit if the retired police commissioner was not deemed to have a ``clean'' record. He however denied reports that the PCB was on a ``collision course'' with the game's governing body over the match fixing case, which has led to allegations of bias and racism against Pakistanis. Asked whether Pakistan would co-operate with Condon, Zia said it was Lord Griffiths or the commission that would lead any investigation, not Condon.

Condon is heading a task force likely to include up to four people, which will be independent of the ICC's executive board and will report only to the Code of Conduct Commission headed by Lord Griffiths. Pakistan and the West Indies objected to his selection during an ICC meeting last month, saying that to ensure impartiality the investigator should not be from a Test playing country. Condon's selection was also disputed in light of a British commission of inquiry report which accused police under him of "institutional racism."

Zia said the PCB objected to any ICC investigation of match fixing allegations against Pakistani players. ``The chapter of match fixing is closed in Pakistan,'' he asserted. He said the only inquiry acceptable to Pakistan would be against South African cricket chief Ali Bacher, who raised a number of allegations against Pakistani players last month. "I say in clear terms that the ICC's further inquiry is not against Pakistan or against Pakistani umpire Javed Akhtar, it's against Ali Bacher," he said.

It may be recalled that Bacher told the King commission in South Africa last month that he had heard two matches involving Pakistan in the 1999 World Cup were fixed and Akhtar had accepted bribes to rig a Test match. Pakistani cricket officials accused him of bias and rejected his testimony as mere "hearsay." Zia said the terms of reference of the proposed ICC investigations would be decided in October and would be reviewed by the PCB's legal advisors.

Bertha Cronje has added a touch of sentiment to the match fixing scandal, which might have devastated Hansie Cronje, very much the central character in the drama. But the wife of the former South African captain Bertha Cronje still hero-worships her disgraced husband. "He is a human being. I don't think his hero image has been shattered for me. He will always be my hero," she told Sixty Minutes, a Channel Nine programme, on which she appeared with her husband.

Bertha said she was shocked when her husband asked her to count the money hidden around their house. "It was very difficult. I had that nauseous feeling in my stomach. I was anxious and I was confused. I counted half of it all wrong and then I stopped and brought it to Bloemfontein," she admitted. But she added that she accepted her husband's confession calmly. "I told him that it was all right, I think. I told him that it was good he was telling the truth now. He has made other mistakes before. This wasn't the first. I don't think I ever saw Hansie in the way that other people saw him, because he wasn't the cricketer to me, he was my husband."

Hansie Cronje, speaking in the same programme, accepted that the scandal had indeed put their marriage under great strain. "I wouldn't have been surprised if my wife walked out on me but at no stage did I ever get that feeling and I've never had that feeling since the day we got married. She's been absolutely brilliant and there were days when I was really weak, days when I didn't want to get out of bed, days when I didn't want to face the world, and she was the pillar of strength."

Cronje said that he was now working towards rebuilding his relationship with Bertha. "I think one of the toughest things for me as a person is going to be to build up the trust again between myself and my wife." This was Cronje's first public interview since he admitted that he wasn't "entirely truthful with his board". According to reports, Cronje was paid an undisclosed sum to appear in the interview filmed in South Africa.

Meanwhile, the Australian Cricket Board chief executive Malcolm Speed set up a gambling forum in Melbourne in response to the bribery scandals and called for a code of conduct to rid the game of match fixing. Speed said the ACB had to make sure players fully understand the pitfalls of gambling. ``We are serious about keeping sport honest,'' said Speed, who hoped the code could be established within three months. ``We need to use players to get the message across to players,'' he said. The ACB will work with the government funded Australian Sports Commission to establish the code.

But the police having tightened measures since the match fixing scandal broke open has not deterred bookies from accepting bets. In Pune, city police arrested five bookies for allegedly accepting bets for the ongoing triangular series between West Indies, Zimbabwe and England.

The bookies were accepting bets for the ODI between West Indies and Zimbabwe on Sunday, police said. They raided a bungalow at Kondwa near Pune on Tuesday and arrested the five bookies. Cash totalling Rs 15,565 and property worth Rs 52,000 including a TV set, four telephones, three mobile phones, a laptop computer and betting register were recovered from them, police said.