Former England all-rounder Chris Lewis claimed in a British Sunday newspaper that he had been told three England players had taken money to fix matches.
The allegations, following the bookmaking scandal involving South Africa’s sacked captain Hansie Cronje, are sure to add to the pressure on the International Cricket Council (ICC), the sport’s ruling body, to conduct a thorough investigation into match-rigging.
Lewis told the News of the World the names of the England trio, who have played regularly for their country during the last four years, were given to him by sports promoter Ashim Kheterpal.
The amounts the three received went into 'thousands','' Lewis was quoted as saying. I was told everybody was at it, including players from South Africa, India and Pakistan.‘’
England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) media spokesman Andrew Walpole said: ``After we have studied the article in detail, we will decide what course of action to take, if any.‘’
Match-fixing allegations have blighted cricket in recent years, and the controversy resurfaced last Tuesday when Cronje admitted accepting between $10,000 and $15,000 from a bookmaker for information and forecasting during a triangular series against Zimbabwe and England in South Africa last January.
Cronje’s admission came after he and team mates Nicky Boje, Herschelle Gibbs and Pieter Strydom were charged by Indian police on April 7 with ``cheating, fraud and criminal conspiracy’’ during a one-day series in India last month. All have denied involvement in match-fixing.
It seems this match fixing muck runs much deeper than originally thought. As Elegancia wrote elsewhere, cricket will soon be competing with WWF. At least with WWF you know the whole thing is fixed. With cricket you are not sure which match is fixed and which one is not. Only yesterday one of the ex board member of Indian cricket told of an incident where he was informed that the match which he was about to watch between NZ and India in Sharjah in 1996 was fixed and that three Indian players will be run out. As it turned out three players were run out, i.e. Sachin, Azhar and Jadega.!!! What next?