Match Fixing News

Fazli, registrar to cross examine Aussies in Melbourne court
 

By Waheed Khan
KARACHI: The Pakistan government Judicial Commission will send its team to Australia to cross examine Mark Waugh and Shane Warne in a Melbourne courtroom on January 8 next year.
Ali Sibtain Fazli, the legal advisor of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) assisting in the Judicial Commission inquiry into match-fixing and betting allegations, and the registrar of the Lahore High Court, Abdul Salam Khawar will travel to Australia for the purpose of questioning the Australian players. According to Fazli the cross examination of Waugh and Warne and perhaps Australian Cricket Board (ACB) officials has become necessary following revelations that the two players accepted money from an Indian bookmaker in Sri Lanka in 1994 in exchange for giving out pitch and weather information. The two Australians have accused Salim Malik of offering them bribes on the 1994 tour to Pakistan and Waugh infact testified before the Judicial Commission in Lahore in October to this effect. Sibtain Fazli said the proceedings in Melbourne on January 8 would resemble that of a Pakistani courtroom and the legal advisor of
the ACB, Brian Ward would be assisting in the whole procedure. The Australian board will bear all expenses of Fazli and Khawar for their journey to Melbourne. Fazli said the ACB had offered that Salim Malik, one of the prime accused in the match-fixing scandal, could also attend the hearing next month alongwith his counsel and can cross examine Waugh and Warne if he wanted. However, Malik would be required to travel to Melbourne on his own expenses as neither the ACB nor the Pakistan board will foot his bill. Fazli said this decision had been taken following technical and logistical difficulties in arranging a video link-up via satellite between the two countries for the Judicial Commission to examine Warne and Waugh. He did not elaborate on what these difficulties exactly were but maybe the high cost of arranging a video link-up -- approximately $10,000 -- convinced the PCB to accept the proposal to send Fazli and Khawar to Melbourne. This means that Mr Justice Muhammad Malik Qayyum, who heads the Judicial Commission, will not be able to submit his recommendations on the basis of the three
months inquiry into match-fixing and betting allegations before the International Cricket Council (ICC) executive board which meets in Christchurch on January 10 and 11. The ICC meeting is expected to discuss in detail the match-fixing and betting issues tarnishing the image of cricket and the disclosures from the Australians and the Judicial Commission inquiry initiated in Pakistan by the government on the request of the Board.
With the cross examination of Waugh and Warne scheduled to be held two days before the ICC meet and perhaps a week before Pakistan Board's Executive Council meets to announce the captain for the planned Indian tour and Asian Test championship, the main question now is, will the findings of the Judicial Commission be finalised in time to be considered by the Councillors?
 
 

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