CAPE TOWN, JUNE 14: In a bizarre turn of events, it was reported on Wednesday that South African cricket boss Ali Bacher is being investigated by the King Commission, which is probing the match-fixing allegations, after a document relating to West Indian rebel tours in the mid-1980s was submitted to the Commission.Meanwhile, in a development that would make many cricketers round the world - particularly in India - lose their sleep, a newspaper on Wednesday said sacked captain Hansie Cronje had handed his lawyers a new confession which is expected to implicate international cricketers in match-fixing.The allegations against Bacher have been made by lawyer Peter Soller, who faxed the Commission a document in which he accused Bacher of being party to an agreement to pay a West Indies rebel team extra money if they lost a one-day match against South Africa. Bacher has vehemently denied the allegations, saying "it is complete rubbish".Commission secretary Peter Bacon said they had received Soller's statement which was published in the Afrikaans-language daily Beeld. Bacon said the Commission was investigating the allegations but would not comment further.Soller's document has mystified cricket officials and a sports promoter involved with the two tours by the West Indian teams - in 1982-83 and 1983-84. United Cricket Board spokeswoman Bronwyn Wilkinson told AFP Bacher remembered a dispute over payment during the second tour in 1983-84 but was "upset" at the tourists to "blow the match".Soller claimed he was called to the Wanderers Stadium by Richard Tessel, who he named as a sports promoter involved with the tour, before a one-day international when the West Indians were refusing to play because of a pay dispute. The row was defused, according to Soller, when Bacher, Tessel and Soller agreed to pay the West Indians extra money provided they lost."After another protracted negotiation session with the West Indian players they voted to return to the field and lose the match," said Soller.Robin Binckes, a sports promoter whose company handled media liaison and negotiated sponsorship on both tours, said Soller's claim was "totally mystifying". He recalled a strike threat by the West Indians over sponsorship rights before the first one-day international at the Wanderers on December 7, 1983. "I was not in the meetings with the players but I was around the dressing room at the time. I do not recall either Mr Tessel or Mr Soller." Binckes was negotiating a sponsorship at the time which resulted in the Yellow Pages company sponsoring the rest of the series.Far from losing the match, the West Indians won and went on to win the series 4-2. The tourists also won a second match at the Wanderers in the same series. During the 1982-83 season, the West Indians played two one-day matches at the Wanderers on successive days, winning one and losing one. Binckes said he could not recall any dispute during the earlier tour.Meanwhile, it was claimed that Cronje's new statement handed over to his lawyer nullifies the one he made on April 11 and which has been contradicted several times in evidence to the King Commission. The Cape Argus newspaper reported that Cronje's new confession was likely to contain details of the involvement of international cricketers in match-fixing.The King Commission, which began public hearings last Wednesday, has already heard retired wicket-keeper Dave Richardson and batsman Pat Symcox testify that "a current foreign international cricketer" made a bribery offer to Symcox in India in 1996.Kumar alleges coercion; Pak withdraws Bollywood actor Kishan Kumar on Wednesday alleged that the Delhi Police had coerced him to implicate some people in the match-fixing controversy. "The Crime Branch sleuths threatened me to name some people in the scandal or else they would show me as having links with the underworld gangs when I was in their custody," he said. Pakistan has withdrawn from a three-match series against India in Dubai in September following its neighbour's decision to pull out of it. A Pakistan Cricket Board official has said the Dubai Cricket Council had been informed that Pakistan would not be playing in the series scheduled for September 21, 22 and 24, as India, too, had declined to take part in the event.
