King report now due in August

To the great surprise of no one, Justice Edwin King has sought and received permission to extend the deadline for his first interim report into match-fixing and related matters from June 30, to August 11.

The sheer volume of evidence gather during the three weeks of the King commission hearings made it unlikely that King would be unable to meet his original deadline.

Commission secretary John Bacon said that there were1 143 pages of transcripts of evidence from the hearings alone.

King is required to submit his interim report to South African President Thabo Mbeki before his findings are made public. It has been speculated that the commission might resume hearing evidence in September and that some witnesses might be recalled to undergo further questioning. Former South African captain Hansie Cronje and United Cricket Board managing director Ali Bacher are among those asked to clarify certain portions of their evidence.