ICC endorses ACU report

By P. Subramanyam

LONDON, JUNE 18. The Executive Board of the International Cricket Council (ICC) has given its unanimous backing to the proposals recommended by Sir Paul Condon aimed at removing corruption from the game.

In a press conference convened this morning at Lord's, ICC President Mr. Malcolm Gray told presspersons that all the 24 recommendations contained in Sir Paul's report have been accepted.

The Anti Corruption Unit's (ACU) first report called for the ICC to become ``more open, transparent and accountable.'' Briefly, the recommendations include the appointment of full-time security managers for each Test-playing nation, restrictions on the use of mobile phones by players and the development of a training and awareness programme. Further it was suggested that the players will be invited to become members of the ICC and share responsibility for running the game, in all fairness.

Sir Paul Condon was thrilled after the ICC accepted all the recommendations of the ACU. After ICC's announcement, Sir Paul said, ``I am very pleased and happy that the ICC has accepted my report and recommendations. It gives the ICC a blueprint to put match-fixing in the past.''

A statement from the ICC's panel added: ``It has become apparent that the present structure of the ICC is inadequate to run international cricket.''

Sir Paul made it clear that it would be inadvisable to make public the details of the ongoing investigations at this stage, but acknowledged that games had been fixed since the ACU was formed last year. The ACU has, however, given Indian bookmaker, M.K. Gupta, a July 1 deadline to come forward and give formal evidence.

Gupta's allegations, made to the CBI last year, exposed a number of leading players. They included England's Alec Stewart, Mark Waugh of Australia, Brian Lara of the West Indies and Aravinda de Silva and Arjuna Ranatunga of Sri Lanka. All the above named players flatly denied any involvement in match-fixing and Sir Paul, in this connection, said that without Gupta's evidence, it would be difficult to take any disciplinary or legal action.

Speaking of Alec Stewart, Sir Paul played down newspaper reports which said that he was ``frustrated'' by the delay in interviewing the England and Surrey cricketer. ``I am anxious to see him. That meeting will take place; Alec Stewart's lawyers have the dates and we are waiting for an early meeting,'' he added.

Although there was a strong pressure to start naming the players, Sir Paul endorsed the view that it would be no ``single naming and shaming report''. This is due to the fact that one cannot ``play fast and loose with the laws of defamation.''

The freedom of individual cricket boards to take action against any player found guilty will be at their discretion. So far, Hansie Cronje (South Africa), Mohammed Azharuddin, Ajay Sharma (India), Salim Malik and Ata-ur-Rehman (Pakistan) have been banned for life by the respective boards.

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