ICC legal team jeered as Odumbe case gets underway

Maurice Odumbe: faces a life ban if found guilty © AFP

The hearings into the allegations of match-fixing against former Kenya captain Maurice Odumbe got off to a lively start when several dozen protestors outside Nairobi's Stanley Hotel jeered the ICC's legal team as they arrived.

The hearing, headed by Zimbabwe's Justice Ahmed Ebrahim, heard from two witnesses before journalists were ushered out as a third, who had been granted anonymity, gave evidence. The ICC had originally wanted the hearing held in private, but was persuaded by Ebrahim that it should be public.

Caitlan Patterson, who had a two-year affair with Odumbe, told the hearing that Jagdish Sodha, an Indian with alleged bookmaking contacts, had visited Odumbe at his house in Kenya in 1999.

Odumbe, who denies all the allegations of receiving payments from an Indian bookmaker, faces a possible life ban if found guilty. The hearing is expected to last five days.