King commission completes first session

The King commission of inquiry into match-fixing and related matters completed its first session of hearings in Cape Town on Monday, adjourning proceedings to an unspecified future date.

The adjournment will allow Justice Edwin King to write his interim report, due by June 30. In his closing remarks, Justice King appealed for any suggestions on how match-fixing might be eradicated to be mailed to the commission at Private Bag X9149, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa or faxed to (27) 21-461-4194.

Chief prosecutor Shamila Batohi also appealed for anyone with any information on the affair to contact the commission hotline 0800-005750.

The final witness of the present session was Johannesburg sweetshop owner Hamid "Banjo" Cassiem, the man who introduced Hansie Cronje to Sanjay Chawla. Cassiem was grilled under cross-examination, particularly by Ms Batohi, over his claims that he knew very little or nothing of arrangements made between Cronje and Chawla.

The first three weeks of the hearings were notable for Cronje's admissions that he had been talking to bookmakers or people involved in match-fixing since 1995. He admitted to accepting money on a number of occasions, to inducing Herschelle Gibbs and Henry Williams to help him throw a match and to approaching several other players. He denied, however, that he had ever thrown a match.

Another important witness was the United Cricket Board managing director Ali Bacher who implicated Pakistan, Bangladesh and India in World Cup matches that were fixed last year and who also accused Pakistan umpire Javed Akhtar of being on the payroll of a bookmaker.

How much the UCB knew of match-fixing prior to April remains a moot point, with particular reference to the 1996 team meeting in Bombay at which an offer to throw a game was debated in some detail.

Although Bacher admitted that Cronje briefly referred to the offer, he denied having believed it to be serious and also denied reading a newspaper report about the offer in 1998.

Cronje said in his testimony that he had decided to sever all his ties with the game, pre-empting what is also certain to be a life ban imposed on him by the authorities. The cases of Gibbs and Williams are more problematic as both claimed, in mitigation, hat they failed to follow through with their arrangements with Cronje.

Gibbs was withdrawn from the South African team to tour Sri Lanka next month, but the UCB is to wait until Justice King delivers his recommendations before deciding what further disciplinary action, if any, should be taken against him.