Match-fixing: King panel members to visit India soon

By M. S. Prabhakara

CAPE TOWN, AUG. 11. The King Commission, inquiring into match- fixing allegations against South African cricketers, will be extending its investigations to India.

Two members of the Commission's investigating team, Ms. Shamila Batohi, the leader of evidence and Mr. Jeff Edwards, a police official, will soon be travelling to India.

This was disclosed by the Chairperson of the Commission, Mr. Judge Edwin King, while handing over the `Interim Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Cricket Match Fixing and Related Matters' to the Minister for Sports and Recreation, Mr. Ngconde Balfour, this morning. The Commission would ensure that ``arrangements are made and appointments are set up'' to enable the investigating team to collect as much information as possible, Mr. King said.

Though Mr. King said little about the nature of the information that the Commission will be seeking, it is clear that the top priority of the team would be the tape recorded conversation between the former South African captain, Hansie Cronje, and his Indian contacts released by the Delhi police on April 7. The absence of an officially certified copy of the tape, or even of a certified transcript of the conversation, has severely inhibited the Commission's work.

The interim report was handed over to Mr. Balfour for onward transmission to the President, Mr. Thabo Mbeki. The report will be made public only after Mr. Mbeki goes through the report. Referring to speculative reports about the length of the report (about 300 pages) and its `recommendations', Mr. King pointed to the slim volume in a plastic folder that he was handing over to the Minister. He said he would not tell the media anything about the actual length of the report or even the number of lines lest it encourage ``line-betting''. The report was essentially an ``encapsulation'' of the evidence rendered before the Commission in public, and did not make any specific recommendations.

Mr. King, however, said he would be submitting what he described as a ``supplementary interim report'', with some recommendations, before his final report.

The Commission which ended its first phase of hearing on June 27 is to resume the hearing on October 2. Mr. King indicated that the scope of his inquiry could be widened (just a matter of housekeeping) since references had been made during evidence tendered earlier to events outside the specific terms of reference of the Commission.

Whether Hansie Cronje would be examined once again, Mr. King said he did not rule out calling once again persons who had already testified. However, he could express an opinion on whether Cronje had told the full truth and all that he knew only after he had heard all the evidence. Any decision on providing immunity to Cronje from criminal prosecution is contingent on Mr. King's satisfaction in this regard.

Mr. King also refused to be drawn into a discussion on the disciplinary hearings by the United Cricket Board of South Africa on the suspension of Herschelle Gibbs and Henry Williams.

There are reports that the Board may decide to lift the suspension. Mr. King said it was ``theoretically possible'' that the inquiry could bring forth more evidence relevant to the two individuals as to any others.

Gibbs and Williams admitted before the Commission that they had accepted a financial inducement from Hansie Cronje to under- perform in the fifth one day international during South Africa's tour of India in February-March this year, though in the event they did not fulfill their part of the deal and received no money.

The inquiry and cross examination which has taken place till now appears to assume that this little bit of fiddle as recorded on the conversation on the tapes related only to the fifth ODI though reports from India suggest that the conversation dealt also in part with the third ODI in which Gibbs fulfilled his part of the deal - by scoring less than 20 runs.

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