Shaun Pollock faces an excited media in Sri Lanka

Press conferences tend to be low key affairs in Sri Lanka, usually participated in because of the availability of free cocktails and snacks. A haven for ego inflation and gossip, but rarely for serious analysis of cricket.

However the arrival of South Africa for the Singer Triangular Series 2000 created a whole new atmosphere in the Lanka Oberoi ballroom this evening. Local and foreign journalists alike crowded in, lured by the tantalising topic of match fixing, which has embroiled two of the countries that are involved in this Singer triangular tournament.

The Singer marketing manager tried his utmost to restrict the questions just to the forthcoming triangular series but to no avail. When the questions and answer started the journalists could not hold themselves back.

To his enormous credit Shaun Pollock answered the questions with enough charm and sincerity to deflect any possible harm, both to his image and the South Africans.

"We realise in South Africa that the game of cricket has been tarnished and our job as the South African cricket team is to restore the fact that it is an honour and privilege to play for your country. We do realise that we have to suffer the consequences of what has gone before us that there will be some people who will be skeptical about cricket and South African cricket in particular. We talk about the issue as much as we want but that is not going to make the issue go to bed, what we have to do is go out there and play as hard as we can and hopefully by our actions on the field everybody can be convinced that the South African team is giving a 120%. I can assure you that no member of my team that is out here has been involved in any misleading with regard to cricket and that whilst I am in charge there will no misleadings in South African cricket."

"We have lost Hansie and Gibbs who were key members of the side, and Allan Donald is playing county cricket. However apart from those guys we have the best 16 cricketers in South Africa here. We are a good enough side to compete and hopefully win the trophy."

Asked whether the team had discussed the Hansie issue as a group during the 4 day training camp he replied: "We did just cricket training. It was four intensive days of net practice. We have just come off a two-month break so we needed to hone in our skills again. It was just cricket but we had brief discussion as a team and then put everything behind us."

When questioned as to why match fixing appears to be so prevalent in the sub-continent he replied: "I think it's difficult because you don't know the people. You don't know whether the person is a bookie or a punter. There is more access to the players in the sub-continent, in the hotel and through the telephone. Its more restricted in other countries."

Shaun Pollock's ordeal was though made easier by a press conference hijack of the highest order. Mohammad Nasir, the Pakistan manager, clearly felt left out as the media concentrated on the South Africans, but when questioned by an Indian journalist he couldn't stop himself: "It all started with your country. You can't shrug off the responsibility for what is now going on. All the bookies are from India, they are the ones who are bringing the bad name to the game of cricket."

He then went boldly on: "Pakistan were the first country to institute a legal investigation, the Qayyum Commission. We asked the Australians but they refused to come, we sent our judicial commission to Australia to gather evidence from Mark Waugh and Shane Warne. We were the first ones."

In reference to a question about Wasim Akram, he rather strangely sidetracked to Hansie: "Let me tell you that I have all the sympathies with Hansie Cronje. I think he showed great moral courage. He has come out, or at least he has had the courage to accept that he has done something wrong. I have all my admiration for him."

He then turned on the Sri Lankan media, complaining that that the sports pages were covered with photographs from the recent test in England: "Why can't you say something about what's going on here rather than what has been going in England. For God's sake, come to this part of the world."

Turning back to match fixing he ended with a plea: "I would love these people to come out and show the moral courage that Hansie has. For the good of cricket these people should come out and speak the truth."

In contrast to his counterparts Sanath Jayasuriya was in luck and had a relatively peaceful time. Content to look on as Pollock ducked and dove the bouncers at the opposite end of the table. He did though face one particularly dangerous delivery: What about the fate of the old hands, Aravinda De Silva and Arjuna Ranatunga.

Not the most eloquent of English speakers, he did though manage to play the issue with soft hands: "This is because we have been grooming youngsters for the last one year and during the one-day series we have been doing well. It's the selectors who have made to decision not to include Arjuna Ranatunga and Aravinda."

Even the sponsors weren't spared. Asked how they felt spending so much money when the matches may be fixed, Hemaka Amarasuriya, the Chairman of Singer, replied: "I wouldn't say that we feel cheated by match fixing but we are disappointed."

The media were certainly not disappointed. They guzzled into a session of drinks, thrilled to have personally experienced a piece of the match fixing saga.