Cricket under scrutiny

Corruption allegations dogged the 1999 World Cup

By sports correspondent Harry Peart

Allegations of match fixing have been common in the modern game, but little of significance has been proved.

If Indian police experts can authenticate the telephone recordings of a conversation between Hanse Cronje and a London-based Indian businessman and prove match fixing, the implications will be wide ranging for Cronje, the three other accused players and the game in general.

There have been several notable cases in the past few years.

Prabhakar: Accused teammate

The former Indian all rounder Manoj Prabhakar accused a teammate of attempting to bribe him to play badly.

Three Australian players claimed the former Pakistan captain Salim Malik offered them bribes to lose a Test match in Karachi. The report into that case is awaiting further action.

Illegal betting

Malik denied the charge, but two of the Australians, Shane Warne and Mark Waugh admitted taking money from an Indian bookmaker to supply information on weather and the condition of the pitch.

Warne: Admitted taking money

Last year, there were unfounded stories that Pakistan had deliberately lost the World Cup final against Australia.

Betting on cricket is illegal throughout the subcontinent, yet the industry is estimated to be worth billions of dollars.

With teams playing an increasing number of one-day matches in artificial tournaments around the world, a betting culture has developed which could lead to more allegations, unless the world governing body, the International Cricket Conference steps in.