10/02/01:
Brian Lara looks set to face a probe into his alleged involvement in match-fixing and two games involving Pakistan at the 1999 World Cup are to be subjected to a judicial inquiry.
On the day Mark Waugh told investigators he had never met a bookmaker at the centre of match-fixing claims, Sir Paul Condon gave cricket's top officials a progress report on Saturday on his worldwide inquiries into the match-fixing problem.
Condon, head of the International Cricket Council (ICC) anti-corruption unit, said individual cricket boards wanted to deal as quickly as possible with allegations against all nine non-Indian players named in an Indian Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) report last year.
Asked whether the West Indies would be setting up their own inquiry to investigate Lara, the former head of London's Metropolitan Police replied: "Watch this space over the next few days."
But he reminded reporters at a news conference after an ICC executive board meeting : "There must be a presumption that people are innocent until proven otherwise."
He added: "We're analysing all that (Indian bookmaker Mukesh Gupta) has said. We're then testing that against other reports that have been done."
In November, the Indian CBI quoted Gupta as saying he had paid Lara $40,000 to under-perform in two one-day matches and Australian batsman Mark Waugh $20,000 for information at a six-a-side tournament. Both players have denied the claims.
Waugh said during his interview with a panel of three ICC and Australian Cricket Board (ACB) investigators in Melbourne that he had never met Gupta.
"I denied the allegations when they first came out and that hasn't changed," Waugh told reporters later. "I've met one bookmaker and that was John."
Waugh and team mate Shane Warne were fined in 1995 after admitting they had accepted money from a bookmaker identified only as John in 1994 in exchange for pitch and weather information.
"I've seen the photo of Gupta, yeah. I don't know who's in the photo.," Waugh said.
ICC president Malcom Gray of Australia told the news conference his organisation had just had a report from Pakistan that a judicial inquiry would be carried out on two matches in the 1999 World Cup in England.
Ali Bacher, former managing director of the United Cricket Board of South Africa, said last June he had been told that Pakistan's defeat by Bangladesh and their loss against India were fixed.
Pakistan surprisingly lost a first-round clash to Bangladesh by 62 runs and in the second round they lost to India by 47 runs after chasing a victory target of 228.
Bacher's claim that former Pakistani umpire Javed Akhtar took money from an illegal bookmaker to influence a test between England and South Africa at Leeds in 1998 will also be investigated, Gray said.
Condon said the ICC wanted to draw a proper line under all match-fixing allegations, do the right thing and move on.
"When people watch cricket they want to know it's about skill and craft and endeavour, not about a seedy mobile phone call and spread betting in India.
"Without overdramatising it, there is some fear out there. It's been a heavy scene." - Reuters