Cricket: Crowe - Payout was a scam

By RICHARD BOOCK

Former New Zealand cricket captain Martin Crowe was paid $US3000 for information he provided during the 1992 World Cup.

Crowe, responding to allegations by Indian bookmaker Mukesh Gupta that he got $US20,000 ($51,000) for providing pitch, weather and team information, said last night that he had been paid for what he thought was a commissioned series of articles.

But he discovered he had been tricked into providing information for a bookmaker.



"I wasn't actually paid by the bookmaker," said Crowe, indicating he was paid by a third party. "But it was obviously an organised scam to collect information and, once I realised what was going on, I knocked it on the head.

"It's very difficult sometimes to know the status of the person you're talking to, and it must have taken me about three or four chats before I woke up to it."

Crowe expects to be cleared of any wrong-doing in connection with match-fixing allegations.

The name of New Zealand's highest-scoring test batsman was mentioned yesterday - along with former captains Brian Lara (West Indies) and Alec Stewart (England) - during an Indian Central Bureau of Investigation report into corruption.

But there has been no suggestion of malpractice by any of the named players, with Indian sports minister Sukhdev Dhindsa unable to clarify the context of the recorded evidence.

Other foreign cricketers apparently mentioned in the report include Australians Mark Waugh and Dean Jones, Sri Lankans Arjuna Ranatunga and Aravinda de Silva, Salim Malik (Pakistan) and Hansie Cronje (South Africa).

Cronje has already been banned for life by the United Cricket Board of South Africa, and Malik by the Pakistan Cricket Board.

Crowe said the news yesterday came as a huge shock, but he was confident today's reports would shed more light on the issue.

"It's horrible to have your name mentioned in something like this, particularly when you're not sure what it's about.

"But I'm confident everything will be cleared up today. From what I understand, Stewart, Aravinda and myself have been mentioned because we refused to cooperate with bookmakers.

"When I discovered Mukesh was a bookmaker ... I told him where to go."

Crowe played 77 tests for New Zealand, scoring 5444 runs, and toured the subcontinent in 1987-88, 1994-95 and 1995-96.

Five Indian cricketers - Manoj Prabhakar, Mohammad Azharuddin, Ajay Sharma, Nayan Mongia and Ajay Jadeja - were also named in the inquiry report.

England Cricket Board chief Lord MacLaurin wants any player implicated in match-fixing suspended until proved innocent.