ICC gives ultimatum to Mukesh Gupta to turn approver

The International Cricket Council on Monday decided to implement all the recommendations of the Sir Paul Condon report on corruption in cricket and gave an ultimatum to Indian bookmaker Mukesh Gupta to become a formal approver by July 1.

"The ICC has approved the report in full and will be implementing all the 24 recommendations," ICC President Malcolm Gray told reporters in London after the Executive Board meeting which unanimously approved Condon's findings.

Condon, who heads the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) of the ICC, led a world-wide probe into match-fixing and his findings culminated in a 36-page report released last month.

Condon told PTI that a two-member team of ACU will travel to India later this week to serve the ultimatum on Gupta who claimed to have given money to a number of international cricketers and figured prominently in the CBI report on betting and match-fixing.

"My team will be in India later this week in pursuance of this message. Gupta will be a formal witness or he won't," Condon said.

Condon said he had met Gupta twice in March this year and the bookie had verbally confirmed all his allegations he made to CBI. "(But) that is not enough to move forward with disciplinary proceedings (against the players). We have to have evidence to bring some closure to all this as otherwise it will be unfair to allow the cloud of suspicion to hang over the players' heads," he said.

"I have given Gupta an ultimatum that it is necessary to let us know by July 1 whether he is willing to cooperate with his evidence either in India or outside. If he fails to heed to the ultimatum, we must assume that he is not prepared to cooperate further," Condon said.

He said ICC would guarantee Gupta his safety if he agreed to testify before the ACU.

Condon also reaffirmed his intention to talk to England stand-in captain Alec Stewart about allegations that he accepted cash from Gupta. "When the CBI report was issued last year, Stewart denied the allegations and wanted to come and see me, and give his side of the story. His is exactly the same position as other people's. I am anxious to see him. We are waiting for an early meeting," said Condon, who added his unit would also interview former New Zealand captain Martin Crowe by the end of this month and Brian Lara of West Indies early next month.

Condon was all praise for the CBI and described the agency as a "very professional outfit" for which he had a "lot of admiration".

A CBI team will be visiting London this week in connection with investigations into alleged bungling in the allotment of TV telecast rights case for the 1998 ICC Knock-out tournament in Dhaka and Condon said the ACU will offer whatever support it can to the team. "We work very closely with the CBI," he said.