Warne, Waugh to testify in match-fixing inquiry
Posted: Saturday December 19, 1998 01:01 PM
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Waugh (above) has accused Malik of offering him a bribe to play poorly during Australia's tour of Pakistan in 1994 Graham Chadwick/Allsport |
HOBART, Australia (Reuters) -- Mark Waugh and Shane Warne will
testify via a live video link to a Pakistan inquiry into
match-fixing, the Australian Cricket Board said on Saturday.
The pair, who have accused former Pakistan captain Salim
Malik of offering them a bribe, were summonsed to appear at the
inquiry after admitting last week that they had taken money from
an illegal Indian bookmaker to provide pitch and weather
information during Australia's 1994 tour of Sri Lanka and
Pakistan.
The two were secretly fined by the ACB in early 1995 but the
incident was not made public until last week.
Waugh and Warne had been reluctant to travel to Pakistan but
have agreed to provide evidence on the video link up, an ACB
spokesman said.
Warne told reporters on Saturday that he was quite happy to
repeat his allegations to the inquiry although he said nothing
had changed since he gave his previous statutory declaration.
"I'll be saying the same things that I said four years ago,
nothing's changed since then," Warne said.
"Their (Pakistan) players have testified against Salim
Malik. We've testified against him. It's up to the judge to see
what he's finding."
Warne, Waugh and former test spinner Tim May accused Malik
of offering them bribes to play poorly during Australia's tour
of Pakistan in 1994.
The charges were dismissed by the original inquiry which
investigated them four years ago but an interim report released
by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in September recommended a
fresh investigation into match-fixing and betting in cricket.
Waugh, accompanied by Australian captain Mark Taylor,
testified at the current inquiry while Australia were visiting
Pakistan but neither Warne, who was injured, or May, who has
retired, were in Pakistan at the time.
The investigating judge, Malik Qayyum, summonsed Waugh and
Warne to provide new testimonies after news of their own
involvement with illegal bookmakers surfaced a week ago.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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