Stewart denies taking bookie's money

Alec Stewart: named in cricket corruption report

Former England cricket captain Alec Stewart has strenuously denied allegations that he took £5,000 from a bookmaker for inside information.

A report into cricket corruption by India's Central Bureau of Investigation named Stewart among nine ex-Test captains linked with bookmakers in some way.

Alec Stewart has categorically denied... that he has ever taken money from Mr Gupta or anyone else

  England and Wales Cricket Board

But the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) have responded by saying Stewart denied the allegations, and that he would not be recalled from the current tour of Pakistan.

Bookmaker Mukesh "MK" Gupta told the inquiry he was introduced to Stewart by Indian player Manoj Prabhakar during England's tour of the country in 1993.

The report says: "MK (Gupta) discloses that he paid £5,000 to Alec Stewart in exchange for information about pitch, weather, team composition etc whenever England played.

"MK has further stated that Stewart, however, refused to fix any matches for him."

The report added that Prabhakar had confirmed he had introduced Stewart to Gupta.

Lord MacLaurin: tough on corruption

But a statement from the ECB said: "Alec Stewart has fully cooperated with the ECB over this matter, and has categorically denied to Lord MacLaurin, chairman of the ECB, and Tim Lamb, chief executive, that he has ever taken money from Mr Gupta or anyone else, for providing information related to a cricket match.

"In fact, he denies ever knowingly having met Mr Gupta. Alec Stewart will not be suspended from playing cricket for England and will remain with the team in Pakistan."

Stewart's father, the former England batsman and coach Mickey, said: "It's been a very unpleasant thing for my wife and the family to hear and read, and it's all speculation.

"Anything that is in the report is in total contrast to the person that he is, and the way he's lived his life and the huge regard he's got for the game of cricket."

Hard line

Lord MacLaurin has already made it clear that he wanted a hard line against anyone involved in corruption.

MacLaurin told the BBC earlier this month: "My stance has always been, if there's any feeling of corruption with anybody in the game - be it a player or an administrator - then they should be suspended from the game until it's proved one way or another.

"If an England player or administrator was under suspicion at all or hadn't co-operated with the inquiry, I'm sure that my board at home would ask them to step aside while we made more inquiries. "

Mohammed Azharuddin: Accused of match-fixing

Among other top players named is former West Indies captain Brian Lara, who is accused of accepting $40,000 to under-perform in two one-day internationals during the tour of India in 1994-95.

And former Indian captain Mohammed Azharuddin is said in the report to have fixed cricket matches with the help of team-mates Ajay Jadeja and Nayan Mongia for large sums of money.

The CBI investigation began in May, a month after Hansie Cronje was sacked as South African captain after admitting that he received money from bookmakers in exchange for providing them with match information.

They subsequently charged Cronje and team-mates Nicky Boje, Pieter Strydom and Herschele Gibbs with "cheating, fraud and ciriminal conspiracy" in connection with a one-day series against India earlier this year.

Detectives interviewed numerous Indian players and officials, past and present, together with alleged bookmakers.