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Bacher identifies 'fixed matches'

Dr Ali Bacher has admitted that Hansie Cronje was approaching players and offering bribes and that he had heard about it from several sources. But, why did he not bring it to the notice of the public earlier and did not act earlier. No doubt this will be inquired into.

He said he was aware that Williams had been approached. Williams had told him about this. Williams had even told him that the $10000 original offer to concede more than 50 runs in an innings against India had been doubled.

But the main thing that Bacher did today was to reveal a much wider world conspiracy. Obviously, he was trying to show that South Africa is a small pawn in a much bigger game. He was convinced by a conversation he had with an Indian bookie that the umpire in the South Africa versus England final Test match, which South Africa lost when they had nine lbws decisions given by the umpire, was "on the payroll" according to that bookmaker.

He also alleged that a famous fast bowler, who he named later as Shoaib Akhtar, had spoken to a sponsor of the South Africa cricket authorities. This conversation took place on a plane, where Akhtar is alleged to have said that the average going rate for bribery to be paid to Pakistan and other international teams for losing matches was one million US$ and this was put into players accounts in Cayman Islands, in England and offshore Jersey. And a conversation allegedly took place, in which Akhtar said that this was perfectly fair because the public would still get a good contest since they would not know which side was paid to lose.

Akhtar allegedly got off the plane in Durban and met an South African cricket official. All SA cricket officials deny having met Akhtar. It is also not clear whether Akhtar was in South Africa at that time. There is no record from the immigration authorities that a gentleman by that name arrived in South Africa. Nor is there a record of that man who allegedly sat in the seat next to Jacques Sellscop, a senior executive of MTN. So it is not 100 per cent clear that Akhtar was the man. Although, as Jacques Sellschop said, that unless he has a genetic clone. This was after showing him photographs of Akhtar and seeing him on television.

Bacher said that when invited to Wimbledon as a guest of the International Management Group (IMG), a major rights provider in cricket and tennis, he met Khan, the CEO of the Pakistan Cricket Board. Khan told Bacher that at least two matches had been fixed during the 1999 World Cup. These matches had been identified by Bacher as India versus Pakistan and Pakistan versus Bangladesh. The Pakistan-Bangladesh match has long been a subject of suspicion. Pakistan had already won through their group at that point and Bangladesh beat Pakistan for the first time in their cricketing history. The India versus Pakistan match result was a surprise.

He did not provide further evidence but said that he had mentioned that the matches had allegedly been thrown when he spoke to the ICC at the end of the World Cup. He however did not tell the ICC which matches he was referring to.

Paul Martin Cainer, editor, Live Africa, will report on the King Commission hearings for rediff.com