International match-fixing scandal

Chronology of the international match-fixing scandal since a Pakistan judicial panel first convened in 1998.

October, 1998 - Judicial inquiry starts in Lahore under Judge Malik Qayyum into allegations that Pakistan test players Salim Malik, Ijaz Ahmed and Wasim Akram helped fix matches. Australia captain Mark Taylor, whose team is touring Pakistan, tells inquiry that team mates Shane Warne and Tim May were offered money to bowl badly on their last tour in 1994-95.

Mark Waugh says Malik approached him before a one-day match on the same tour asking whether he could find four or five players willing to throw the match.

December 8 - Australian Cricket Board (ACB) admits it secretly fined Waugh and Shane Warne in February 1995 for giving what it called routine pitch and weather details to bookmakers during Australia's 1994 tour of Sri Lanka. Both players say they were "naive and stupid" but deny giving information on team line-ups or tactics.

1999
January 8 - Pakistan inquiry reconvenes in Melbourne and hears evidence from Waugh and Warne. Warne says Malik had approached him during the first test in Pakistan in 1994-5 and offered him money to bowl poorly to ensure a drawm match.

July - Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif calls on government's accountability bureau to investigate national team after crushing World Cup final defeat by Australia. Akram, Malik and Ahmed banned from playing for Pakistan until cleared by the inquiry.

September 13 - PCB chairman Mujeeb Rahman Khan tells news conference Akram, Malik and Ahmed have been reinstated. Justice Qayyum says he is still compiling report which has yet to be released.

2000
April 7 - Delhi's Joint Commissioner of Police K.K. Paul charges South Africa captain Hansie Cronje and team mates Herschelle Gibbs, Pieter Strydom and Nicky Boje with involvement in match-fixing during a one-day series against India in March. The four deny the charges.

April 11 - Cronje sacked as captain for three-match one-day series against Australia after admitting he had not been "entirely honest" in his denials of match-fixing. United Cricket Board of South Africa managing director Ali Bacher tells a news conference Cronje had accepted $10-15,000 from a local South African and an Indian bookmaker based in London during a triangular series with Zimbabwe and England in January.

April 17 - International Cricket Council president Jagmohan Dalmiya announces emergency meeting at Lord's on May 2-3.

April 28 - Indian government orders country's highest police authority, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), to conduct official investigation into match-fixing.

May 2 - ICC clear Dalmiya of corruption allegations on first day of emergency meeting. Chief executive David Richards reads a statement saying Dalmiya had not been involved in negotiating televison rights for the 1998 ICC knockout tournament in Dhaka.

May 3 - Dalmiya announces life bans for anyone found guilty of match-fixing. ICC agree to set up an Anti-Corruption Unit and all players and officials are asked to sign a declaration saying whether or not they had been asked to take part in any corrupt activity.

May 4 - South African judge Edwin King named to head inquiry into Cronje case. Kapil Dev says he will take libel action against former India all-rounder Manoj Prabhakar who has accused him of involvement in match-fixing.

May 5 - ACB rule out review into Warne-Waugh case.

May 7 - Dalmiya says ICC presidents in future will not be involved in financial negotiations.

May 22 - ACB says it will investigate allegations by Malik that Australians were involved in match-fixing during 1994 tour of Pakistan.

May 23 - ICC ask for copies of tape recordings of Malik allegations.

May 24 - Malik and all-rounder Ata-ur Rehman banned for life after PCB chairman Taurir Zia releases Qayyum report. Akram, Mushtaq Ahmed, Waqar Younis, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Akram Raza and Saeed Anwar censured and fined. Qayyum says there was no planned betting or match-fixing "but doubts of varying intensity have been cast on the integrity of some members of the team in their individual capacity".

May 25 - Malik says he will go to court to challenge ban.

June 2 - Cronje hands confession to King commission which says "in a moment of stupidity and weakness, I allowed Satan and the world to dictate terms to me".

June 7 - Former South Africa off-spinner Pat Symcox tells inquiry he rejected an offer by a "current international" whom he declines to name to throw a match.

June 8 - Gibbs admits accepting $15,000 from Cronje on then understanding he will score less than 20 in the fifth one-day international against India at Nagpur in March. He says his room mate Henry Williams agreed to accept a similar sum to concede 50 runs from 10 overs. Gibbs hit 74 and said he did not receive any money while Williams did not complete his bowling spell.

June 9 - Gibbs dropped for South Africa tour of Sri Lanka.

June 10 - Bacher says former Pakistan Board chief executive Majid Khan told him some 1999 World Cup matches had been fixed. Cronje offered immunity from prosecution in South Africa if he is "absolutely honest."

June 15 - Cronje submits statement to inquiry admitting to taking four bribes. He says he received money from a man who was introduced to him by former India captain Mohammad Azharuddin.

June 16 - Azharuddin denies Cronje's allegation.

June 17 - An affadavit signed by a Cape Town businessman claims former West Indies captain Brian Lara received cash during a 1993 one-day tournament in South Africa. Lara issues a denial.

June 26 - Former London metropolitan police chief Paul Condon named as head of ICC's anti-corruption body.

July 21 - Indian tax officials say they have found evidence of undisclosed incomes by Azharuddin, Ajay Adeja and Kapil Dev.

Aug 11 - King submits interim report to Sport and Recreation Minister Ngconde Balfour.

Aug 19 - Gibbs and Williams formally plead guilty before the United Cricket Board of South Africa (UCBSA) disciplinary committee to agreeing to accept money from Cronje.

Aug 28 - Gibbs and Williams are banned from international cricket for six months retrospectively from June 30 to December 31.

Oct 9 - Pakistan Cricket Board asks for judicial investigation into allegations of match-fixing at 1999 World Cup.

Oct 11 - UCBSA ban Cronje for life.

Oct 16 - Condon rules out amnesty for match fixers at ICC meeting in Nairobi.

Nov 1 - Indian Central Bureau of Investigation report accuses Azharuddin of fixing matches but exonerates Kapil Dev. The report says bookmaker M.K. Gupta offered or paid money to nine non-Indian players including former West Indies' skipper Brian Lara, former England captain Alec Stewart and Mark Waugh. Australia's Dean Jones, South Africa's Hansie Cronje, Sri Lanka's Aravinda de Silva and Arjuna Ranatunga, New Zealand's Martin Crowe and Salim Malik are also named in the report.

Nov 23 - Azharuddin denies match-fixing. "This is all wrong. I have done nothing of the kind," he says.

Dec 5 - Indian cricket board bans Azharuddin and former test player Ajay Sharma for life. Jadeja and Manoj Prabhakar are banned for five years.

2001
Jan 22 - Mark Waugh declines to be interviewed by Anti-Corruption Unit or ACB about the Indian Bureau of Investigation into corruption. He later agrees when presented with details of the investigation.

Feb 5 - King Commission postponed again from its revised resumption date of February 19 after Cronje's lawyers refer to a Constitutional Court ruling saying a judge can not also be in charged of a special investigative unit.

Mail Cricket Editor