Pakistan inquiry commission asks ACB to send Waugh, Warne (12 December 1998)

12 December 1998

Pakistan inquiry commission asks ACB to send Waugh, Warne

AFP

LAHORE, Dec 12 (AFP) - A Pakistani judicial commission investigating match-fixing allegations in cricket on Saturday sent a formal request to the Australian Cricket Board to make Shane Warne and Mark Waugh available for examination.

The request followed confessions by the two players that they took money from a bookmaker for providing information on weather and pitches during Australia's Sri Lanka tour in 1994.

"We have sent a letter to the ACB requesting them to produce the two players before the commission here on December 19," Pakistan Cricket Board's legal adviser Ali Sibtain Fazli told AFP.

Warne and Waugh had accused former Pakistan cricket captain Salim Malik of offering them bribes during the Australian team's tour of Pakistan in 1994 following the Sri Lanka tour.

Malik has said the confessions showed that his accusers were "cheats" and has threatened to sue them.

Cricket officials said the inquiry had to take into account the belated disclosure that the two Australian players were secretly fined in 1995 for taking payments from the bookmaker.

Meanwhile several Pakistani cricketers objected to publication of their assets in a local newspaper on the basis of declarations they submitted to the commission through the cricket board.

"They were confidential declarations and their leakage to the press has put our lives in danger, we feel insecure now," said a player on condition of anonymity.

The players said they would take up the the matter with the board.

A local newspaper Saturday carried the list of assets of seven players under a headline which read : "Moin Khan the richest, Inzamam runner-up and Mushtaq Ahmed the poorest."

The commission, which has recorded statements of a host of former and current players since it was set up in September, is expected to complete the inquiry next week.