No Evidence Of Bribes -- Cairns (5 Jun 1997)

5 June 1997

No Evidence Of Bribes -- Cairns

New Zealand's cricketers were unaware of any bribe-taking by their Indian counterparts, says Chris Cairns, who played in the match at the centre of allegations.

Cairns said it was extremely difficult for games to be fixed and controlled and he had no feeling anything unusual happened in that game.

Interestingly though, New Zealand's win at Napier was its first in 16 matches after a disastrous losing sequence that season in South Africa and against West Indies.

But it was also set against the strife-torn tour of South Africa and three players being stood down for drug-taking in the one-day matches against West Indies which followed.

New Zealand also had Cairns and Mark Greatbatch returning for the centenary series to strengthen its side.

Meanwhile former Indian manager Ajit Wadekar revealed he had ordered phones in players' hotel rooms be tapped to find out if they were involved with bookmakers.

Wadekar, the former test captain who was manager from 1992 to 1996, said he was forced to tap phones without the players' knowledge when rumours of betting surfaced in early 1993.

"I found nothing incriminating or objectionable.

"But I had to resort to unconventional methods to find out the truth," he said.

Source :: The Christchurch Press (https://www.press.co.nz)