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How the drama unfolded
A Definitive Overview of Cricket Match-Fixing, Betting and Corruption Allegations
John Polack & Duane Pettet - 10 May 2000

Notable moments in the modern history of allegations of betting, match-fixing and corruption in cricket.

1975

[February 15-20]
Pakistan captain Intikhab Alam allegedly forfeits the toss in the First Test against the West Indies in their 1974-75 series. As star batsman Viv Richards later tells it, West Indian captain Clive Lloyd completed his duties at the toss and then returned with the staggering news that, despite having made the wrong call, he had been advised by Intikhab that he had in fact won the toss.

1 9 8 0

[January 29 - February 3]
With India having already won the series convincingly, bookmakers reportedly field large bets on the home team winning the toss and taking a first innings lead in the Sixth Test against Pakistan in Calcutta. According to claims later made by former Pakistan paceman Sarfraz Nawaz, then Pakistan captain Asif Iqbal picks up the coin at the toss before his opposite number, Gundappa Viswanath, even has a chance to verify the result and tells the home skipper that he has won it. Further allegations are also directed toward Iqbal's shock first innings declaration, which comes with his team a matter of 59 runs behind the Indian total and with six wickets still in tact.

[July 16-21]
During the Headingley Test against arch enemy England, Australian players Rod Marsh and Dennis Lillee place bets on their opponents (reputedly £10 at odds as massive as 500/1, given that England is following-on and perilously close to defeat) to win the match. Although there is no serious question that the two players do anything other than continue to play to their best abilities for their own team, an Ian Botham-led England duly completes one of the most monumental and most celebrated turnarounds in Test history to claim a miraculous 18 run win. Marsh and Lillee collect their small fortune.

1 9 8 7

[November 4]
Pakistan suffers an unexpected defeat in its World Cup semi final match against Australia in Lahore. Sarfraz later accuses Iqbal and a range of business colleagues of having paid 30,000,000 rupees to members of the home team to ensure that the side lost the match.

1 9 9 1

[August 23-26]
A match between Essex and Lancashire in the closing stages of the County Championship season results in a victory to the former after it is set a generous declaration by its rivals. Essex ultimately secures the County Championship by just 13 points. A day earlier, the Sunday League contest between the two teams ends in a win that advances Lancashire's aspirations of securing that title. Three years later, Don Topley (an Essex player in both matches and later Zimbabwe's national coach) claims in a column in a British newspaper that there had been collusion between the teams to organise both results in advance.

[October 23]
Amid thickening gloom, India's Sanjay Manjrekar and Manoj Prabhakar are at the crease against Pakistan toward the end of the closing preliminary round match in the Wills Trophy tournament in Sharjah. Complete confusion sets in as they appear to be offered the chance to leave the field on account of bad light and initially begin to head in the direction of the pavilion. At this stage, their team is ahead of the required run rate (and would win the match if no further play is possible) but they inexplicably turn around and play re-commences. India ultimately loses by 4 runs.

[October 25]
Manager Intikhab and captain Imran Khan are allegedly forced to intervene to circumvent the intention of four of their players to involve themselves in a betting coup focusing upon the self-same Wills Trophy tournament. The pair even takes the extraordinary step of placing the players' earnings on Pakistan to beat India in the Final in an attempt to ensure that no player profits from a fixed result. Pakistan duly wins the match by 72 runs.

1 9 9 2

[August 17-22]
On the verge of its first ever Test win against Australia, Sri Lanka suffers a monumental collapse (surrendering its last eight wickets for a mere 37 runs) to crash to a 16 run defeat in the First Test at Colombo. A series of claims casting doubt as to whether all was above board, however, later come to cloud the sanctity of the result: at least three Sri Lankan players (Asanka Gurusinha, Roshan Mahanama and Sanath Jayasuriya) are supposedly approached at about this time and offered money for information and match forecasting. Australian batsman Dean Jones is also allegedly asked to provide information on players' form during the tour in return for a payment of 50,000. And Australian off spinner Greg Matthews is also apparently approached and invited to sell information.

1 9 9 3

[July]
Australian captain Allan Border apparently rejects a 1,000,000 bribe from a former Pakistani Test cricketer, Mushtaq Mohammad, to throw the Fifth Test of the Ashes series in England. Mushtaq later laughs off the accusation as a joke.

1 9 9 4

[March 16]
In a game that has no substantive effect on the outcome of their five match series (in light of the fact that the tourists already lead 3-0 and that the fourth contest has been tied), New Zealand completes a reversal by emphatically defeating Pakistan by a margin of seven wickets with nearly sixteen overs to spare in a One-Day International at Christchurch. The extent of the Pakistanis' fall from grace after their previous dominance of the series (and, more particularly, the fact that they can only muster a score of 145 for nine from their allotted overs) astounds many observers at the time; that some elements of the match are ultimately the subject of various claims and counter-claims revolving around the suggestion of fixing accordingly does not contain quite the same element of surprise. The most damaging accusation is that pace bowler Ata-ur-Rehman was allegedly taken aside shortly before the match by Pakistan teammate Wasim Akram and offered 200,000 rupees to bowl poorly.

[March]
In the lead-up to the one-off Test between the teams in Hamilton, New Zealand fast bowler Danny Morrison is reputedly approached by an Indian player, who discusses with him the possibility of exchanging information from inside the New Zealand camp in return for payments.

[April 21]
An Indian bookmaker allegedly approaches Pakistan opening batsman Aamir Sohail on the eve of his team's appearance in the Australasia Cup Final against India in Sharjah. He is apparently offered 2,500,000 rupees for losing his wicket before his score reaches 10 and for running out opening partner Saeed Anwar. Others are also believed to be contacted by the bookmaker; at a team meeting before the match, the players respond by agreeing to swear on the Koran that they will each perform to the best of their abilities for their side.

[September]
During Australia's participation in the Singer World Series in Sri Lanka, Mark Waugh and Shane Warne accept money from an Indian bookmaker (known to them as 'John') in exchange for weather and pitch information. According to information the players later provide to their own Board and to the Qayyum inquiry (an official investigation established in Pakistan in 1998 to investigate instances of corrupt conduct involving international players), Waugh was approached in person by the bookmaker at the team's hotel during the early stages of the tour and was offered ,000 for providing a range of details about upcoming One-Day Internationals in which Australia would be involved. Waugh agrees to pass on information about weather and pitch conditions in exchange for payments but declines to extend the deal to include team tactics or selection matters. After being introduced to him by Waugh at a casino in Colombo, Warne receives a 'gift' of ,000 from the bookmaker two days later and is then subsequently contacted by him several times and asked about pitch and weather details.

[September 7]
Allegedly, the match upon which the information provided by Waugh and Warne most clearly centres is the Pakistan-Australia Singer World encounter in Colombo. Even at the time that it is played, it draws suspicion in some quarters because of the way in which Pakistan collapses when victory is clearly within its reach. Set a modest 180 to win, the home team is cruising at 80 for two when opener Saeed suddenly retires hurt (with cramp); it precipitates a collapse that sees the Pakistanis fall short of the Australians' total by 28 runs.

Pakistan manager Intikhab is reportedly telephoned in his hotel room after the match by a caller who refuses to disclose his name but who states that he has lost money on the result and that at least four players have colluded to deliberately surrender the match. Saeed himself seemingly later tells investigators from the Qayyum inquiry that he had also sensed during the day that the match had been fixed. It is reported that this interpretation is independently supported by Lahore bookmaker, Salim Pervez, who apparently tells the investigators that he paid a total of ,000 to Pakistan captain Saleem Malik and leg spinner Mushtaq Ahmed to ensure that Australia won the match.

[September]
Another member of India's team for the Singer World Series match against Pakistan in Colombo allegedly approaches Prabhakar and offers him 2,500,000 rupees in exchange for playing badly in the match.

[September]
Two Indian players reportedly approach Pakistan opening batsman Sohail and offer to pay him if he is able to help fix the same Singer World Series One-Day International encounter between the countries.

[September]
Former Pakistan captain Imran admits forestalling alleged attempts at a betting coup during a one-day series in Sharjah four years earlier by four (unnamed) players in his team.

[October 1]
Pakistan captain Malik allegedly approaches Warne and fellow Australian spin bowler, Tim May, on the fourth night of the match and offers them the amount of ,000 to bowl badly on the last day of the First Test in Karachi.

[October]
Shortly before the Wills Triangular Series One-Day International match between Pakistan and Australia in Rawalpindi on 22 October, Malik supposedly seeks out Waugh and enquires as to whether he could potentially bring together four or five players interested in throwing the match. Waugh, Warne and May wait another five months before airing their accusations against Malik publicly.

[October 30]
Led by a series of sound contributions from its top order batsmen, West Indies scores 257 for six in a Wills Cup preliminary match against India in Kanpur. India is still within touch of the required scoring rate for victory late in the match when Nayan Mongia joins Prabhakar at the crease. What follows, however, is a dawdling exhibition of batting which ensures that the home team finishes as many as 46 runs adrift of their opponents' total. Even though Prabhakar ultimately makes an unbeaten century, each of the two players is mysteriously dropped for the team's next match - the tournament Final.
The extent of the Indians' act of underperformance becomes so manifest by the end of the game that International Cricket Council (ICC) match referee Raman Subba Row acts to dock two points (wins in the tournament were worth four) from their final tally. He does so on the suspicion that they have been instructed to lose the game in order to ensure that West Indies would qualify for the Final ahead of New Zealand and thus guarantee the financial success of the competition's concluding match. Along with a number of other games, the match later becomes the subject of investigation at the Chandrachud inquiry - an official probe instituted by India's cricketing administrators to explore the issue of match-fixing in greater depth in relation to its effect (if any) upon Indian cricket.

1 9 9 5

[January 13]
After their team loses the Mandela Cup one-day series Finals to home team South Africa, Pakistan captain Malik and his deputy, Rashid Latif, stage a bitter row over Malik's decisions to field first in both matches. It also emerges that Latif had asked all the players to swear on the Koran before the first Final that they would not deliberately underperform but that Malik escaped doing so by leaving the dressing rooms early for the toss.

[January 31 - February 4]
Pakistan suffers a shock innings and 64 run defeat at the hands of the Zimbabwe in the First Test at Harare. The Test receives a controversial start after Malik calls 'bird' (the national symbol on one side of the Zimbabwean coin) instead of 'heads', compelling match referee Jackie Hendriks to order a re-toss. The result hands massive underdog Zimbabwe its first ever victory in Test company (in only its eleventh appearance). The Pakistanis encounter little resistance thereafter and go on to win the series 2-1 - a scoreline which ensures that they become only the third side in history to claim a three Test series after losing the opening match.

[February]
Malik orders each member of his team to swear on the Koran that they had not taken a bribe in return for deliberately bad performances in the First Test of the Zimbabwe series. This reinforces a similar measure apparently taken by Intikhab prior to the team's arrival in Zimbabwe.

[February]
The Australian Cricket Board (ACB) fines Waugh a sum of 10,000 and Warne 8,000 over their involvement with the bookmaker. The ICC agrees to a request from the ACB to keep details of the players' actions and the penalties secret.

[February 16]
Sohail reveals to London's The Sun newspaper that some of his teammates had willingly accepted bribes to fix the outcome of various international matches.

[February 16]
Two Indian players allegedly agree to an offer from a bookmaker which ensures that they will play below their normal standard in the New Zealand Centenary Tournament one-day match against the hosts in Napier. New Zealand ultimately wins the match by a margin of four wickets. This match, and the circumstances surrounding it, is also ultimately the subject of investigation at the Chandrachud inquiry.

[February]
On the eve of the second of a three match One-Day International series, Latif and batsman Basit Ali suddenly pull out of the Pakistan squad which is touring Zimbabwe. In their public statements, both cite a lack of enjoyment in any longer playing international cricket in order to explain their actions.

[March]
Malik is sacked as Pakistan captain and suspended from all first-class cricket in the country pending the outcome of investigations into his alleged involvement in the rigging of international matches. Manager Intikhab is also dismissed from his position.

[March]
Later in the month, a stay of execution is granted to Malik (and his ban is lifted) as an ad-hoc Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) committee re-opens investigations into bribery allegations previously made against him.

[May]
Latif and Basit recant from their earlier decisions to make themselves unavailable for international cricket.

[July]
The ICC adds a clause (Clause 9) to its Code of Conduct (a regulation which is to be followed by all players and administrators) which specifically outlaws players and officials' direct or indirect involvement in betting, gambling or any form of unofficial speculation on the outcome of any cricket match.

[October]
Justice Fakhruddin Ebrahim, heading a PCB-initiated investigation into bribery allegations, concludes that Malik has no case to answer. He also finds that the accusations made against Malik by Warne, Waugh and May were concocted.

1 9 9 6

[July 25-29]
Latif makes his long awaited return to international cricket with his appearance in the First Test against England at Lord's.

[September 1] Scoring at a rate of better than a run per ball, Latif compiles a crucial unbeaten 31 to steer Pakistan to victory at Trent Bridge in the closing game of the three match One-Day International series against England. Prior to his arrival at the crease, the Pakistanis had been beset by a middle order collapse that had looked like it would condemn the team to a 3-0 series loss.

1 9 9 7

[February]
Shortly after returning home, team manager Sunil Dev allegedly includes in his tour report to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) references to the fact that he harboured the inkling that some Indian players had been involved in betting on the team's two-month long visit to South Africa. He also allegedly declares that he is reasonably confident he knows who the guilty players are, but that he will not name them in the absence of concrete proof. According to later public comments made by him, all of his information was swept under the carpet by the Board.

[March]
In a column in a Lahore newspaper, Sohail unleashes a blistering tirade at his former teammates. He alleges that several are guilty of corrupt conduct. He also reserves some particularly scathing remarks for the unnamed figures' actions surrounding the closing one-dayer against England six months earlier. He claims that Latif was told to lose his wicket cheaply because there was a large sum of money riding on England winning the series 3-0 and that retribution is subsequently brought to bear on the wicketkeeper-batsman because of his refusal to comply.

[March]
In a letter to the President of Pakistan (also the Patron of the PCB), Farooq Laghari, former international cricketer and government adviser Sarfraz supports Sohail's claims. He also outlines a belief that the results of the Pakistan-South Africa match at Karachi and the quarter-final meeting between India and Pakistan in the 1996 World Cup were pre-planned.

[April]
A PCB disciplinary committee bans Sohail from international cricket for two years for making allegations against fellow cricketers of betting and match-fixing and for criticising an official.

[April]
While working for the Indian newspaper Pioneer, journalist Pradeep Magazine claims that he was offered 4,000,000 rupees by a bookmaker to approach members of the Indian team and help alter the results of remaining matches on the team's tour of the Caribbean. Magazine documents the story in the newspaper and later pens a revealing book (Not Quite Cricket) in which he details the general saga of match-fixing in cricket.

[May]
After the government and PCB hold joint talks over the issue (and Sohail issues an unconditional apology to the Board), Sohail's two year ban is lifted and replaced by a fine of 50,000 rupees for violating the Board's Code of Conduct for players. The PCB orders its disciplinary committee to conduct a full probe into the issue and asks Sohail to again before the committee to fully expound all of his allegations which relate to bribery and match-fixing.

Indian magazine, Outlook, produces a cover story which focuses on a series of explosive revelations made to it by former international all-rounder Prabhakar about the apparent involvement of various Indian cricketing identities in match-fixing and betting.

[June 20]
The BCCI discharges responsibility to Mr. Y.V.Chandrachud, a former Chief Justice of India, to conduct his wide ranging inquiry into accusations of betting and match-fixing against Indian international players.

[July 30]
Outlook produces another major match-fixing article, this time focusing on the claims of former Pakistan wicketkeeper Latif. Among other revelations, he tells journalist Aniruddha Bahal that a number of Indian players regularly contacted him informally for inside information about the form of his team and about pitch and weather conditions so that they could pass such details on to others.

[September]
Former Pakistani paceman Rehman prepares a written affidavit in which he details his allegations that Akram paid him to underperform during the one-day clash against New Zealand in Christchurch on 16 March 1994.

[November 17]
Justice Chandrachud completes his investigation into corruption in Indian cricket. He accepts that a large amount of cricket-related gambling occurs in India but refuses to concede that any of the information presented to him proves that any Indian player, official or journalist has ever involved themselves in any such form of activity. His findings are not released publicly for close to two and a half years.

[December]
England One-Day International captain Adam Hollioake is implied to have been twice telephoned by illegal bookmakers during the Akai-Singer Champions Trophy tournament in Sharjah, a quadrangular series in which his team is competing. The bookmakers reportedly inform Hollioake that he stands to become a millionaire if he consents to divulge inside information to them in the lead-up to his team's preliminary match against India and to ensure that certain bowlers are utilised at certain times. Another England player, Dougie Brown, is also allegedly contacted.

[December]
Australian batsman Ricky Ponting is apparently approached in person by a bookmaker at a Sydney greyhound meeting and offered a sum of money to forward inside information in relation to an upcoming One-Day International involving his team.

1 9 9 8

[January]
Akram relinquishes his post as Pakistan captain, citing the effect of intense media and public scrutiny as the reason for his decision. He states that baseless accusations about match-fixing and betting being rife within the team have exacted too great a toll upon him for him to be able to continue in the role.

[January]
In a remarkable turnaround, Latif assumes the post of Pakistan captain for the upcoming tour of Zimbabwe and South Africa. The closing One-Day International in South Africa in April ultimately represents his last ever appearance for Pakistan.

[August 6-10]
Having been on the back foot for most of the series and been aided significantly during its course by poor weather, England completes a spectacular turnaround at Headingley by winning a gripping Fifth Test of its series against South Africa. But controversy surrounds the triumph given that the match has been dogged by a series of contentious lbw decisions awarded predominantly by Pakistani umpire, Javed Akhtar. Five such decisions come in overwhelming favourite South Africa's second innings.

When rumours spread eighteen months later that international umpires have been approached from time to time by bookmakers, the thoughts of some almost immediately return to Akhtar's performance in this Test. That umpires' base wages were, under ICC regulations at the time, calculated in accordance with earnings scales in their own individual countries and that Akhtar was therefore receiving an inferior sum of money for his services in comparison to fellow umpire, Peter Willey, only adds to the impression that he might have been an attractive target for bookmakers. Akhtar completely rejects all such accusations.

[August]
The three man Pakistan Cricket Board-appointed panel (headed by Justice Ijaz Yousuf) investigating match-fixing and betting allegations releases its interim findings. It establishes that the conduct of Malik, Akram and Ijaz Ahmed has been suspicious and that none of the three players should be considered for selection in the Pakistan team until their actions are cleared by more formal investigations. It recommends that a full examination of all players who have been the subject of recent allegations should be undertaken. Arrangements for a new commission into the affair, to be headed by Lahore High Court Judge Malik Mohammad Qayyum, are instituted and the new investigations begin almost immediately.

[September 15]
An angry Akram announces his retirement from international cricket in a bid to fight what he states is a growing conspiracy against him. He slams the refusal of PCB Chief Executive Officer, Majid Khan, to grant him any form of support.

[September 21]
Only six days after exiting the stage, Akram announces that he is making himself available for selection in Pakistan's team for the forthcoming series against Australia and Zimbabwe.

[September 27]
Akram is duly selected in an eighteen man squad from which the team to meet Australia will be chosen. To add to the strange turn of events, Sohail is named captain for the series.

[September 30]
Stating that its major priority is to ensure that its players' minds are fully focused on their performances on the field during their tour of Pakistan, the ACB refuses a request that members of the touring team give evidence at the Qayyum inquiry.

[October]
The Pakistani cricket media receives a leak that Australian players Mark Taylor and Mark Waugh have agreed to provide testimony to the Qayyum inquiry. Following further investigations, it emerges that ACB Chief Executive Officer Malcolm Speed had negotiated arrangements with Justice Qayyum for Taylor and Waugh to give evidence following the conclusion of the First Test at Karachi on the condition that testimony was to remain confidential and that the security of the players would be ensured.

The two players duly appear and profess to confirm to the Inquiry the earlier accusations made against Malik by May, Warne and Waugh. Waugh also allegedly reaffirms that Malik approached him before a one-day match on the same tour asking whether he could find four or five players willing to throw the match.

[October 4]
Confusion surrounds Rehman's appearance at the Qayyum inquiry. Initially, it is reported that he has chosen to deny any knowledge of having ever stated that Akram had asked him to bowl poorly at any time in his career and that the affidavit supposedly produced in his name was forged. Other reports, however, suggest that Rehman informs Qayyum in a private deposition that he was in fact subjected to intense pressure to withdraw the affidavit. It is further reported that he reaffirms to Qayyum that, like every other player in the team aside from Latif and Sohail, he was party to an arrangement masterminded by Malik and Akram that ensured that Pakistan lost the 1994 Christchurch match.

[October]
Reports allege that Raja Aftab, a bookmaker based in Karachi, discloses at the Qayyum inquiry that Akram, Malik and Ijaz all accepted bribes to throw matches. Another bookmaker, Raja Zafar Iqbal, purportedly provides the Inquiry with the names of three other bookmakers who he claims enjoyed direct links with Akram.

[November]
Former Pakistan captain Imran reportedly tells the Qayyum inquiry that some of his Pakistani teammates during the period of his involvement in the sport had cheated and taken bribes. He states emphatically that his knowledge of matchfixing dates back over a timeframe approaching two decades.

[December]
The Australian Cricket Board (ACB) admits it secretly fined Waugh and Warne in February 1995 for disclosing details to bookmakers during Australia's participation in the 1994 Singer World Series in Sri Lanka. Both players say they were "naive and stupid" but deny giving information on team line-ups or tactics. The ACB later states that it will convene an independent inquiry into any possible involvement in betting by any contracted Australian player.

[December]
More details appear in various media outlets of the respective brushes of Morrison, Ponting and Matthews with the match fixing scourge.

1 9 9 9

[January]
The Qayyum inquiry moves to Melbourne, where it takes further evidence from Waugh and from Warne.

[February 24]
The findings of the one-month long O'Regan Inquiry (established by the ACB to investigate the past conduct of Australian players) are released. No evidence is discovered of Australian players' involvement in the practice of match-fixing and no suggestion that players have failed at any time to perform to their optimum potential is made. Nevertheless, the Inquiry (headed by Mr Rob O'Regan, a former Chairman of the Queensland Criminal Justice Commission) does launch a series of sweeping criticisms of the ACB for its handling of the Warne/Waugh scandal and makes to the Board a series of recommendations about the manner in which it should proceed on the subject in the future.

[May 29-30]
In a World Cup match that spans two days on account of poor weather, England suffers a debilitating batting collapse in Birmingham and slumps to a 63 run loss against India. The result decides the immediate fate - in completely contrasting manner - of both nations in the tournament; England is eliminated while India lives again by qualifying for the next phase. The circumstances and the consequences of the match both ultimately become the subject of suspicion. Moreover, the dubious nature of some of the umpiring in the game (most pointedly, the decision as to when the players left the field on the first day and a controversial lbw verdict against key England batsman Graham Thorpe) and the fact that Akhtar was again in charge inflames rumours.

[May 31]
In possibly the biggest shock in World Cup cricket history, unheralded Bangladesh defeats the previously unbeaten Pakistan by 62 runs in the teams' closing Group B match in the 1999 version of the tournament at Northampton in England. When match-fixing rumours explode to the surface ten months later in the wake of Hansie Cronje's humiliating personal demise, this match (upon which nothing of any great substance in a tournament context itself was at stake for the Pakistanis) is widely identified as one that was the subject of such action.

[June 20]
Pakistan is humiliated by eight wickets by Australia in a lopsided World Cup Final at Lord's. In the wake of the defeat, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif calls on the government's accountability bureau (the Ehtesab Bureau) to investigate the actions and conduct of the national team. Akram, Malik and Ahmed are banned from playing for Pakistan until their names are cleared.

[August]
Former England all-rounder Chris Lewis is allegedly approached by Indian sports promoter, Ashim Khetrapal, and reputedly offered £300,000 in return for influencing certain of his country's players to perform poorly during the remainder of their home Test series then underway against New Zealand. It is later speculated that Khetrapal was working on behalf of an Asian betting syndicate and that two members of the England team to whom the conversation had turned at various moments were Alec Stewart and Alan Mullally.

After Lewis refuses the offer, Khetrapal reportedly turns his attention to New Zealand captain, Stephen Fleming. The Kiwi skipper is allegedly volunteered the same sum of money to become involved with the syndicate but also repudiates the proposition and immediately reports the incident to the ICC.

[September 6]
On the eve of the Coca-Cola Cup Singapore Challenge Final between India and West Indies, South African umpire Rudi Koertzen is reputedly telephoned by a man claiming to be a bookmaker and has discussed with him the possibility of becoming involved in making his umpiring decisions in a corrupt fashion. Dr Ali Bacher, Managing Director of the United Cricket Board of South Africa (UCBSA), confirms the incident the following week and states that Koertzen had reported the matter to him immediately.

[September 12]
A story appears in the News of the World in London outlining the accusation that Khetrapal had approached Lewis.

[September 13]
New Zealand Cricket (NZC) Chief Executive Officer, Chris Doig, releases a statement declaring that Fleming had been approached by a betting syndicate during the England Test series and that he had immediately rejected the offer and reported it to team manager John Graham, who advised NZC. Doig also says that NZC in turn submitted a report to the ICC and that police were notified of the incident.

[September]
Akram, Malik and Ijaz are once again made available for national selection even though the Qayyum inquiry continues.

[October]
The Qayyum inquiry is concluded and the contents of the Justice's final report are handed to the Pakistan government. By the time the ICC holds an emergency meeting as many as six months later to consider its own response to the problem of match-fixing, the report's contents have still not been released publicly.

[November]
Eyebrows are raised as senior Indian cricket administrator Sunil Dev reveals, during a television programme, that a bookmaker has informed him of the course that the forthcoming India-New Zealand one-day series will take. He predicts that the series will reach a scoreline of 2-2 before it heads into its fifth and final match at the Feroz Shah Kotla ground, the headquarters of the Delhi and District Cricket Association of which Dev is the chief guiding force. The scenario duly unfolds exactly as Dev had foreseen during the programme.

2 0 0 0

[January 14-18]
In a conclusion the like of which has never previously been witnessed in the 122 year history of Test cricket, the Fifth Test of the South Africa-England series ends in an astonishing two wicket triumph for the visitors. Prior to its sun-drenched final day, the match (in Centurion) had been badly affected by rain and it relies on the contrivance of two innings being forfeited for a result to be attained. Suggestions abound at the time that all was not entirely right about the manner in which the result was achieved; these gather pace when the involvement with bookmakers of Cronje, the captain of the home team, becomes clear three months later.

[April 7]
Delhi Police lay charges against South African captain Cronje and teammates Herschelle Gibbs, Pieter Strydom and Nicky Boje relating to their alleged involvement in the practice of match-fixing during their team's one-day series against India in March. In conjunction with the laying of the charges, purported transcripts of incriminating telephone conversations between Cronje and bookmaker, Sanjay Chawla, begin appearing in media outlets across the cricketing world.

[April 11]
Cronje is sacked as South African captain only days before a three match one-day series against Australia is due to begin after he admits that he had not been "entirely honest" in his earlier denials of accepting money from bookmakers. He confesses that he received between ,000 and ,000 to provide weather and pitch information to bookmakers during the home Standard Bank Triangular Tournament which had pitted his side against England and Zimbabwe. He denies all allegations of having fixed any international cricket matches at any time in his career.

[April 16]
Chris Lewis writes in a British newspaper that he is aware that three well known international cricketers from his country have been involved in the practice of match-fixing. It emerges that this information has allegedly been passed to Lewis by Khetrapal.

[April 17]
The UCBSA begins developing new contracts for its elite level players. It draws on the previous experience of Australian administrators in order to insert clauses that also place strict controls over some aspects of the players' off-field conduct.

[April 19]
Bacher talks candidly to several members of the Australian press about the growing menace of corruption in cricket. He reveals that he has been informed that two 1999 World Cup matches may have been fixed and, more generally, that match-fixing has been a common practice in world cricket. His comments are then linked by the pressmen to speculation about the propriety of Bangladesh's World Cup victory over Pakistan; Akhtar's umpiring in the Fifth England-South Africa Test of 1998 and the 1999 England-India World Cup match; and to the potential involvement of various Pakistan teams in the throwing of matches. Aspects of the story are later misinterpreted and it is assumed by some figures around the world that Bacher has made such allegations directly. Bacher later issues a general statement clarifying his position and sends a further memo specifically to the PCB.

[May 1-2]
The ICC holds an emergency two day meeting in London to plot a course to deal with the scourges of match-fixing and betting. The eighteen assembled delegates resolve to implement a number of measures (most notably the creation of a Corruption Investigation Authority and the imposition of a requirement that all international players and officials declare whether they have or have not been approached to become involved in any form of misconduct) to eliminate such activity from the sport. Through its representative, the PCB also commits that it will ensure that the findings of the Qayyum inquiry will be released for public consumption within five weeks.

The delegates are nevertheless diverted from their work for a period on the first day to explore and ultimately refute media accusations raised shortly before the meeting that ICC President, Jagmohan Dalmiya, abused his own position by negotiating a corrupt deal over the granting of the television rights to the Wills International Cup tournament in Bangladesh in late 1998.

[May 4]
The UCBSA announces that Justice Edwin King, a former Judge President of the Western Cape, will head its own inquiry into match-fixing and corruption in cricket following the weeks of damning revelations to have surfaced in the light of the Cronje scandal. It explains that the commission will have no formal powers to punish players and/or officials but that it will likely make a wide series of recommendations.

[May 5]
Former champion Indian all-rounder and cricketing icon, Kapil Dev, commences legal action against past Indian cricket chief Inderjit Singh Bindra. His decision to sue follows Bindra's accusation (made in an interview on television conglomerate CNN) the previous day that Prabhakar had named Kapil as the person who had offered him a bribe to play badly against Pakistan in the 1994 Singer World Series in Sri Lanka.

[May 8]
PCB chairman Tauqir Zia announces that he expects that there will be a further delay in the release of the Qayyum inquiry report. Zia explains that a number of legal questions emanating from the report's conclusions need to be clarified before the findings can be disseminated for the cricketing public's full examination and scrutiny of the subjects of match-fixing and general corruption in the sport.

MATCH FIXING
No Not you Kapil

Bindra's startling charge gives a new twist to the match-fixing controversy

By Sayantan Chakravarty

Big cats stake their territory by spraying. Gunfighters in the Wild West would just walk down main street at noon, spit phlegmy tobacco and drawl, "This town isn't big enough for both of us." With Kapil Dev and Manoj Prabhakar, who've exchanged at last count perhaps one civil sentence in the last 10 years, it's all a trifle more subtle. No one's rude enough to spray, or insane enough to flash a sixgun. It's simple. Kapil walks into a room to applause and Prabhakar slinks silently into a corner. In the body language of these modern gunfighters is the message.

Or so it was at least on the night of April 30. Three days hence former BCCI boss I.S. Bindra will inform CNN that Prabhakar told him it was Kapil who offered him the money, and Prabhakar will impersonate the Invisible Man and not be seen, and Kapil will thunder and strike his desk and announce, "If he's got balls, he'll take calls," and Madan Lal will say things about Bindra that are not quite printable because he's in this mess too since Bindra tells CNN that in Barbados in 1997, when India were chasing 120 and lost, coach Madan told him "unhone match phek diya (They threw the match)".

But that's then, this is now, and in the cool evening comfort of a businessman's house in Greater Kailash-II in Delhi, Kirti Azad is celebrating his wedding anniversary. Guests mill, gossip, coo, drink. At 10 p.m. or thereabouts, an invisible curtain draws and the theatre begins. Prabhakar, who is facing the door, suddenly ices over, and as a grimness settles on his face you know he's seen a familiar ghost. It's a white-teeth smiling and blood-red-T-shirt wearing Kapil. They don't smile or talk or shake hands, there is no false conviviality here.

Prabhakar, like some character from a bad film, does his slink-into-the-corner act. He is a strange man, a lawyer's nightmare, for he loves to talk, wearing his notoriety like a halo. Three years ago he said someone offered him money during the 1994 Singer Cup, and he's spoken enough about match fixing to fill a TV mini-series in 14-hour-long parts. But he's guarded that someone's name like a virgin. This evening, he's talking.

Smoke is hanging like an opaque curtain from the ceiling and as the night drags on, an India Today correspondent saunters up to Prabhakar and asks, "Who's the player who had made you the offer?" Prabhakar smiles the smile of a man who knows it's a question that's always coming. "It's not the player everyone thinks it is. He's a bigger name ..." And then his smile fades, his mouth hinges shut.

"Oh, you mean it isn't Mohammed Azharuddin?" the reporter asks. He gets no answer.
Prabhakar isn't finished, he has a proposition to make. "I can write for you, and tell you the name. But I need a fee. It must be comparable to what you pay Kapil Dev for his columns, for the kind of trash he heaps on your readers."

"But why compare yourself with Kapil Dev?" he is asked.
"Well why not? I need the money, he doesn't," Prabhakar said. "And I can give you a scoop."
And then, without warning, he offers a hint of what that may be. "Arre, I told him then (during the Singer Cup), 'Paaji, inside the stadium I shall touch your feet, but outside it don't mess with me'." He is speaking in Hindi, and it is certainly not chaste, and most of it defies reproduction in a family magazine.

"You mean, the offer ... it came from Kapil, that's why he's avoiding you?"
Prabhakar just smiles. "All this I'll tell the CBI." (Apparently, he had already told Union Home Minister L.K. Advani who the player was).
But he still can't stop, his tongue has lost its control, he's like a steam engine with too much coal and no driver. "I kept pointing out (presumably to Azhar, the skipper during that Singer Series) that in some overs too many runs were being given away, while at the other end I was being miserly. Yet he (Kapil) was persisted with."

Was Prabhakar insinuating that Kapil was deliberately bowling badly?
So much for that night. It is now three days hence, the beginning of a chaotic day, and the scene has shifted from Greater Kailash, Delhi, to St James Court in London. In room 1162 is a man with the snowy beard of a sage, whose belly is gradually beginning to obscure the view of his toes, who has a huge appetite for the truth. So he says. He has threatened to reveal all, for days, weeks, months, but like a coy striptease artist, has always stopped before it's too late. Then on cnn he lost his patience and decided being discreet had become boring -- Prabhakar, he said, told me the player he named was Kapil Dev. "I was just making it easier for Prabhakar," he explained to us.

On the phone he is ebullient, his voice full of the bravura of a man who has opted to speak honestly when few else have thought it a virtue. "Prabhakar told me that when Kapil offered him the money he told him to forget it. Prabhakar then told his friends in the team and said to them you are my witnesses. He also told Wadekar, who said he would speak to the BCCI secretary."
Three years of mystery solved in the flicker of a name uttered. It seems too easy, too comfortable. Why would Prabhakar tell Bindra, and Bindra tell CNN, and even Kapil later is unsure who to sue, the source or the messenger? In the olden days they'd tie their hair into pony tails, shrug on ruffled silk shirts, walk 20 paces and duel at dawn. Now it's just one man's word versus another, so how is it decided: by taking a scale and weighing their respective credibility, only to ask is the man with superior credentials always the better man?


The heart of this story is the absence of the truth, cricket's continuing tryst with dishonesty. It's getting late in office, and we call for Prabhakar but his lawyer Nidhesh Gupta swears he's in Mumbai. In a world getting smaller, in a time of global communication, it's strange why that must translate into meaning he's untraceable. But a source close to him, men whose existence is off-the-record, confirms Bindra is spot on. Really? In Mumbai, a traceable Wadekar says, "So what if Bindra named us. That does not prove anything. Let Prabhakar speak and give names."

Alice was a girl, what would she know about curiouser and curiouser. When Bindra has finished telling CNN about Kapil, he's not really finished. He says, "Once during my tenure as BCCI chief, the management suspected that some Indian players had thrown a Barbados match. The team manager then was Mr Madan Lal, the captain was Mr Sachin Tendulkar." (To deviate for a precious moment, why would anyone give CNN a scoop about cricket?)
Is he implicating Tendulkar, we ask, and he measures his words carefully, does Bindra, and says, "I am not implying anything; I am only stating the fact." But about Madan's reaction he is emphatic: "Madan became very emotional and told me "unhone match phek diya'". Inference: 120 to get in the fourth innings, all out for 81, the bastards have sold it.

So we find Madan, at home, and dutifully Bindra's words are read out to him and he says, "I haven't talked to anyone yet, but now I will." And for a moment there's that pause of possibility, till he says he has no recollection of such a conversation, with Bindra or with anyone. "I never said that, I never spoke to him about the match, I don't know why these things keep on coming up, why he is dragging people in?" Madan is a proud man, a small man with a heart disproportionate to his size. When India loses, his ears smoke in fury. "But coaches do get upset, I am there to win games, but I never doubted my players' integrity."

Tendulkar's?
"Never, not even in my dreams."
And we're not sure what it is about today but everyone wants to talk, so Madan rolls on. "You know, recently Bindra said I told him that I told Punjab players that if they wanted to play for India they should leave the state otherwise they will not get selected. I never said that either, I never spoke to him."
His conversation has a postscript: his friend Kapil, who played from the heart, guilty? He'll never believe that.

Kapil in the morning, always reachable on his cell phone, says tersely he doesn't "have time for such jokes". It's afternoon now and he's our last port of call. His BMW purrs to a stop, and he exits in a blue Polo shirt, walks into his office at Delhi's Bengali Market, positions himself just in front of a handwritten "God Bless You" message from Mother Teresa, uncomfortable that his sainthood is under scrutiny. As interviews go we make a testy beginning. First question and his face moulds into a scowl of incredulity, and he says, "Before I answer the question, after 20 years of sweat, ask yourself, should you really ask me this?"

It is impolite, even heretical, to sit before a man whose heart we swore had the word India tattooed on it, and question his tardy bowling performance in that 1994 Singer Cup (an average of 38.00). He was old then, rust settling in the veins; he was too, like any player anywhere, anytime, allowed his moments of mediocrity. It is, goddammit, the very nature of sport. But the game has changed and every match holds the possibility of conspiracy; the rules have altered too, and no man's past heroism is enough of an armour. In a way Kapil knows that. Once such a query would have left a reporter with a bruised jaw; these days it's met with a rueful resignation.

A friend calls to offer support and he thanks him; a journalist calls and the lines on his face soften as he is first charming, then turn rigid as he rages; another journalist calls and this time he laughs, "Meine subse talak le liya (I have divorced everyone)". He is a portrait of a man whose ordered world has lost its moorings, sometimes rapping his phone on the table in angry exclamation, sometimes leaning back in studied silence. Ask him a question and he offers a rhetorical one in return: "Do I have to prove my credibility to anyone in this country?" He believes the media is in a feeding frenzy, as if only a corpse a day will satiate its appetite. "Twenty years," he says, "20 years of blood and sweat gone down the drain." If he is guilty, Robert De Niro has found a successor, for he is a sublime actor; if he's innocent, then no acts of contrition from us will suffice.
"I'm waiting for the truth to come out," he says as he shakes hands. As another catastrophic name-calling week for cricket unfolds, with inneundo often posing as evidence, it's hard to disagree.

-with Rohit Brijnath, Ashok Malik and Sheela Raval

This article is taken from India Today.