Mark Waugh stalls over Pakistan match-fixing inquiry (30 December 1998)

30 December 1998

Mark Waugh stalls over Pakistan match-fixing inquiry

AFP

MELBOURNE, Dec 30 (AFP) - Australian cricketer Mark Waugh is seeking independent legal advice before agreeing to appear before a Pakistan judicial inquiry into match-fixing, the Australian Cricket Board said Wednesday.

However, legspinner Shane Warne and former team manager Alan Crompton have agreed to to give evidence to the inquiry in public.

"I'm more than happy to do what's required. It will be the same evidence I gave four years ago," Warne said Wednesday.

Waugh, Warne and Crompton have been asked to appear before the Pakistan commission in Melbourne on January 8 when they will be questioned about allegations Waugh and Warne were offered money by former Pakistan captain Salim Malik to lose a match in 1994.

The Pakistan Cricket Board asked for the players to testify again after it was revealed they took money from an illegal Indian bookmaker for providing information on weather and pitch conditions during Australia's tour of Sri Lanka in 1994.

The pair were fined by the ACB in February 1995 but the matter was hushed up until three weeks ago.

Crompton, who was Australian team manager at the time, offered to testify.

Two days after Waugh, Warne and Crompton are scheduled to give evidence to the Pakistan commission, the International Cricket Council will tackle the issue of gambling in the sport at a meeting in Christchurch, New Zealand, on January 10-11.

The bookmaker scandal involving Waugh and Warne has been placed on the ICC meeting agenda and a bloc of subcontinent countries -- India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka -- will lobby the ICC to slap life bans on the Australians.

An independent inquiry into gambling in Australian cricket, due to start on January 12, will seek to interview all Australian cricketers since 1992.

Source :: AFP