Cricket Chiefs Open Emergency Summit
Filed at 12:20 p.m. EDT
By The Associated Press
LONDON (AP) – The International Cricket Council opened a two-day emergency meeting Tuesday to deal with the match-fixing crisis that has rocked the sport.
``We need strong leadership to work out a strategy to wipe out once and for all the cancer from the game,‘’ said
Ali Bacher, managing director of South Africa’s cricket board, has alleged that two matches were fixed and at least one umpire was bribed during last year’s World Cup. He has promised to produce evidence of his allegations at the meeting.
The assembly was called in the aftermath of the scandal involving former South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje, who admitted last month that he received cash from an Indian bookmaker. He said he took the money for ``forecasting’’ and denied fixing matches.
Since then, several other leading figures have claimed to have been approached by illegal betting syndicates operating in India and Pakistan.
The summit has been restricted to the 18 ICC delegates, who are mostly figureheads, while the chief executives of the nine Test-playing nations are absent.