Host of witnesses for King Commission

The King Commission of Inquiry into South African cricket is likely to call between 35 and 45 witnesses when its hearings start in Cape Town on June 7, commission secretary John Bacon said on Tuesday.

The commission has spent the past two weeks interviewing potential witnesses with a view to establishing who should be called to give evidence when the public hearings start.

"I can't say exactly how long the hearings will take," said Bacon. "Some witnesses might take a day or more to give their evidence. In other cases, we might be able to get through four or five witnesses in a day.

"But we do have to provide an interim report by the end of June," he said.

There is still some uncertainty as to whether the Delhi police tape recordings that allegedly implicate Hansie Cronje, Nicky Boje, Herschelle Gibbs and Pieter Strydom will be available to the commission.

"We would very much like the tapes to be available to the commission," said Bacon. "They would most definitely assist us. I have made an official request for the tapes through the Department of Justice and as yet I have had no official response. I would imagine that the request has to go through the usual diplomatic channels."