Match
Fixing News
PCB officials may travel to Australia if video link-up
fails
By Waheed Khan
KARACHI: A final decision on whether the Judicial Inquiry Commission
can cross examine Mark Waugh and Shane Warne via a video link up will be
made today. If the link-up between Pakistan and Australia proves
unworkable, then the legal advisor of the Pakistan cricket board (PCB)
who is assisting the Judicial inquiry into match-fixing and betting allegations
and the registrar of the Lahore High Court will travel to Australia to
examine the two Australians. The Australian Cricket Board officials also
hope to begin their inquiry into the match-fixing and betting scandal this
week in Melbourne, with the ACB on Monday speaking to Brisbane barrister
Rob O'Regan, who will head its inquiry, about whether he can travel to
Victoria this week to interview players gathering for the Melbourne Test
match that starts on Boxing Day. According to legal advisor Ali Sibtain
Fazli, the PCB and the Lahore High Court have not yet worked out the details
of the video link-up and have prepared an alternative way of re-interviewing
Waugh and Warne should the link-up not be possible. Currently the PCB and
the court officials are discussing the feasibility of the video link with
a television production company in Pakistan. "If we cannot do the video
link-up, we will go to Australia to interview the two players,'' Sibtain
said. "Mr Abdus, the registrar of the High Court, will oversee the interview
and I will cross-examine the players.'' Sibtain said that either way the
commission of inquiry had to complete its interviews by the end of this
month. He also said that the application moved by Wasim Akram to the court
for the right to cross-examine witnesses who had given evidence against
him, including former Test teammate Ata-ur-Rehman, had been accepted in
principle by Justice Malik Muhammad Qayyum. "Judge Qayyum has agreed in
principle to Akram's request and sees no reason why this cross-examination
could not take place this week. That could take place in one day,'' Sibtain
said. "The judge is taking a brief leave soon but we have to and will finish
the inquiry by the 31st of this month.'' Once the final interview and cross-examination
have taken place, Justice Qayyum will compile his report from the four-month
investigation and will then hand it to the Pakistan Government.
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