West Indies board to investigate allegations against Lara

Earlier, West Indies manager Ricky Skerrit said: “We are assured by Brian Lara that the allegations are without any foundation.

“The West Indies team is in the UK to play cricket and we will not be participating in any further discussion on this matter,” he added.

A South African businessman has alleged that Lara laced a winning bet on a 1993 match and received payment of about $ 3,000, according to newspaper reports.

Lara, the biggest name in World cricket, allegedly wagered on a match during a February 1993 triangular series involving South Africa, Pakistan and the West Indies, according to a report on Friday in Natal Witness newspaper.

The Times of London ran a similar report on Saturday.

A South African businessman, who has declined to be identified, has given an affidavit saying he paid out 20,000 rand (about 3,000 dollars) on March 3, 1993, `for winning bets’ placed by Lara.

The businessman, who lives in Cape Town, said he did not want to be named “with all the threats that are flying around at present,” the newspaper said.

International cricket has been rocked by a series of match-fixing allegations in recent months.

Former South African cricket captain Hanse Cronje testified this week that he accepted about 100,000 in bribes from 1996 through this year, though he claims neither he nor his teammates threw any matches.

Cronje also alleged that the former Pakistan captain Salim Malik, and former India captain Mohammed Azharuddin were also linked to bookmakers. Malik and Azharuddin have hotly denied the claims.

Lara, who holds many of the games batting records, had not previously been implicated in the recent scandal.