Not Cricket 'Sometimes'

Amidst the growing debate over match-fixing, Zimbabwe cricket captain Andy Flower has hinted about feeling uncomfortable about matches in which he has played.

'When we have beaten sides over the last few years, we have asked ourselves: 'Did that look a bit dodgy''' Flower said after his team completed a disappointing tour of the Caribbean on Saturday.

'There have been a couple instances I thought that the opposition didn't quite look themselves.' he said.

Like most who have added their voice to the subject, Flower said he was totally against the practice, but he also said that such things (match-fixing) were going on.

'We were all brought up to know what's right and what's wrong. That's obviously very wrong,' he said.

'At the moment, we are not going to get too many approaches to throw games, but these things are obviously going on. Guys have just got to be strong enough to say no.'

It was Flower's view that some 'underhand activity' was taking place at the international level.

'I think there are some shenanigans going on, but they are obviously investigating it quite closely at the moment.

'It is going to be exciting to see what happens,' he said.

Zimbabwe, the newest and weakest of the nine Test-playing nations, have scored three victories against 21 defeats since contesting the first of their 41 Tests in 1992.

Their first and most remarkable was an innings and 64-run victory over the Salim Malik-led Pakistan at the Harare Sports Club in 1995. Pakistan were also their victims in Peshawar in 1998, the same year in which they beat Indiain Harare.

Zimbabwe's latest stunning victory was achieved at last year's World Cup when they triumphed over a previously unbeaten South Africa side captained by Hansie Cronje.

Flower said, however, it was more difficult to fix games than some people were making it out to be. His comments came following the recent admission by Cronje that he received money from an Indian bookmaker during a One-Day series earlier this year.

The Pakistan camp chose to remain tight-lipped on the issue.

'I can't say anything about what is going on because we have got a message from our board just to concentrate on the tour,' team coach Javed Miandad said.