Odumbe's wife implicates six more players

Katherine Maloney, the estranged wife of Maurice Odumbe has implicated six other players in the corruption scandal at an International Cricket Council tribunal.

Maloney told the hearing that the group of six had received US$5,000 from Jagdish Sodha, the Indian bookmaker who was alleged to have had links with Odumbe.

"Maurice said he had been approached by a middleman of a bookmaker to throw away a match. He had invited five or six members of the team because he could not do it alone," Maloney said in her testimony, recorded by the ICC Anti-Corruption and Security Unit investigators.

Maloney, who was summoned as a witness to the case by the presiding judge, Ahmed Ebrahim, said the players' relationship with Sodha had led to a breakdown in her two-year marriage with Odumbe. The couple, who have two children, are currently involved in a bitter divorce settlement in Kenya.

"I was very unhappy about the relationship because Maurice had said Sodha was a gangster and I did not want any friendship with Sodha because I disapproved of this match-fixing business," said Maloney. She also recounted one occasion in 2002 when Odumbe sent her to collect $US10,000 from Sodha at his hotel room in Nairobi.

Maloney added, "He handed me a roll of American dollars. I was uncomfortable and expressed concern about all this money. I was worried I was participating in something I did not know, but he said the money was for a pharmaceutical business. This is no business I am aware of. The only pharmaceutical was medicine for Maurice's mother who was ailing with hypertension."

Ishan Kapila, Odumbe's lawyer, said his client would not be giving evidence in the tribunal, as he had a strong case derived from the preliminary objections and the cross examinations by the witnesses. "There is nothing to be gained by Odumbe giving evidence, but there is need to do so on the evidence presented in this tribunal."

He said he would prepare his written submissions, to be presented on Friday, which would "outline the contents of our defence."