Salim Malik devoid of credibility — ACB chief

The newspaper said it used undercover reporters to set up Malik, and added it had videotaped evidence of his admission about involvement in match-fixing.

“Malik’s not a really credible person at the moment and sad thing is he could throw anyone’s name around, which could hurt the person,” said Fleming, who toured Pakistan in 1994.

“A, if you’ve done that (match-fixing), you should go, that should be the end of you and B, if you haven’t been part of it, it’s a hard stigma to get rid of. It’s a sad sort of blight on the game at the moment.

Tim May, who is the president of the Australian Cricket Players’ Association who played in that series, said he had no knowledge of any Australians accepting bribes to play poorly.

“As an individual I’ve got no knowledge of that and I’d be totally shocked if anything like that happened,” said May, who along with teammates Shane Warne and Mark Waugh accused Malik of offering them money to play poorly in a match in 1996.

Speed, who held a media conference late on Monday to speak about the article, made clear what ACB thought of Malik.

“Before jumping to conclusions we must determine if the comments are simply the idle boasts of a man devoid of credibility who is seeking (to) impress others or if there is any evidence to support his comments,” Speed said. “If there is evidence that requires us to act, we will take appropriate action and do it as forcefully as possible.”

While there has been speculation about certain games involving Aussies during its 1994 tours of Pakistan and Sri Lanka, Speed said he was unsure to which match Malik was referring.

Speed said that ACB would ask the International Cricket Council (ICC), to look at copies of News of the World tapes and pass on any sections that implicated Australian players.

Speed said if it could be proved Malik made his comments to News of the World reporters, it would help vindicate the Australians’ claims.

“If you accept what Salim Malik is alleged to have said in these tape recordings, I think it vindicates Warne, Mark Waugh and May in their allegations … By implicating Salim Malik further than he’s been implicated previously,” he said.

Graveney dismisses report

LONDON: England cricket manager David Graveney on Monday dismissed allegations that Pakistan threw a One-Day game against his team in Sharjah three years ago as part of a betting scam.

Reacting to the News of the World report, Graveney said he saw no evidence of any match-fixing in the game. “I believe that we won that tournament fairly,” he said. “I still regard that as the only trophy England have won in the last few years — it would be shattering to all of us if that wasn’t the case.”

“I did not have any suspicions at the time, but ever since someone of Hansie Cronje’s stature has been implicated, it is very sad, but you start going back in your mind over previous matches,” he said.

According to The News of the World, Malik, who has been implicated in match-fixing allegations already but cleared by judge in Pakistan, told the reporter that England would not have won the game in Sharjah if it had not been fixed.

“Basically all the games in the Middle East and Asia are fixed,” he was reported as saying. “The England vs Pakistan match in Sharjah, when Adam Hollioake led his side to victory, was fixed by my people. England would never have won otherwise."

He also was reported to have said how it would be easy to fix games during England’s tour of Pakistan starting in October.

The paper said he told its reporter that it would cost 500,000 pounds per game and that he would arrange it with players, bookmakers and even a contact he had within the International Cricket Council, the game’s world governing body.

England’s cricket leaders don’t propose to take up the allegations with the Pakistan Cricket Board. But they are hopeful the new procedures laid down at the recent ICC executive board meeting will be sufficient to prevent any wrong-doing.

“ICC have put in place a mechanism to deal with these sort of things,” said Tim Lamb, the Chief executive of the English cricket board. “It is not up to us to take a unilateral view of the tour and we will follow ICC’s procedures and guidelines.