ICC says new allegations tarnish player reputations

International cricket's anti-corruption chief said on Monday weekend press reports detailing allegations of bribery and match-fixing were unsubstantiated and tarnished player reputations.

Sunday's Observer newspaper in London said the International Cricket Council (ICC) had a new 13-page document that laid out a slew of accusations, including how four West Indian batsmen had thrown their wickets.

"The article contained no new information and is a repackaging of unsubstantiated allegations relating to the 1980s," ICC Anti-Corruption Unit head Sir Paul Condon said reading from a prepared statement in Melbourne.

"The recycling of reports in the British Sunday press has unfairly tarnished the reputations of players...," he added.

The Observer had quoted ICC communications manager Mark Harrison as saying the information included "new names and certain new allegations".

Condon said his team of investigators would vigorously pursue any new allegations.

"But we will be equally vigorous in dealing with recycled speculation. The time has come for some journalists who are recycling this sort of information to put up or shut up," he said.

Condon had been in Melbourne to address an ICC executive board meeting over the weekend.

Meanwhile, The Australian newspaper said on Monday that Australian Cricket Board (ACB) chief executive Malcolm Speed had requested assistance from Australian foreign affairs officials in case Indian police sought to interview Mark Waugh during Australia's tour to India beginning later this week.

Waugh met ACB and ICC anti-corruption investigators in Melbourne on Saturday when he again denied a claim that an Indian bookmaker paid him $20,000 for information at a six-a-side tournament in Hong Kong in 1993.

West Indies batsman Brian Lara and Waugh were among nine non-Indian players named last year in an Indian police report into match-fixing as having connection with bookmakers.

Each of the players named in the report was identified by an Indian bookmaker, Mukesh Gupta.

Lara denies any involvement in match-fixing and the West Indian cricket board had previously said it did not plan to investigate him.

Condon said on Saturday plans were underway for individual boards to give all nine players the chance to speak about the allegations against them.

Mail Cricket Editor