ACB to conduct inquiry

ADELAIDE, DEC 11: The Australian Cricket Board (ACB) said today it would launch an independent inquiry into reports that players other th...

ADELAIDE, DEC 11: The Australian Cricket Board (ACB) said today it would launch an independent inquiry into reports that players other than Shane Warne and Mark Waugh had been asked by bookmakers to give match information.

The ACB said the move came after media reports that former Australia player Greg Matthews (in Sri Lanka in 1992 and offered money to provide information) and New Zealand’s Danny Morrison had also been approached by subcontinent bookmakers.

“The first thing to do is to expand our level of inquiry to make sure there aren’t any sleepers around,” ACB chairman Denis Rogers told a news conference during the lunch break of the third Ashes Test between Australia and England.

“Two former players said they were approached for information. In the context of these statements being made we want to make sure there aren’t any sleepers in our environment again,” Rogers said.

PBC pressure on ACB

SYDNEY: The Pakistan Cricket Board said today Australian cricket officials must release all information on the Shane Warne-Mark Waugh bookmaker scandal to dispel any suspicion they were again sweeping the matter under the carpet.

PCB chief Khalid Mahmood told Australian Broadcasting Corporation Radio from Lahore he was disappointed the ACB had not contacted him since the bookmaker scandal erupted on Tuesday.

“We would like the ACB to place all the cards on the table, which would mean we would like to know exactly what happened, when did it happen, and what are the other associated details,” Mahmood said.

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Meanwhile, reports from Lahore said the Pakistani inquiry commission probing the match-fixing charges against some cricketers of the country was contemplating to ask the ACB to allow Warne and Waugh depose before it following their revelations.

Warne, in the meantime, has been sacked as a columnist by the English tabloid Mirror after admitting he accepted money from bookmakers during the Australian cricket tour of Sri Lanka and Pakistan in 1994.