LONDON - Indian bookmaker Mukesh Gupta has 10 days to decide to give formal evidence backing allegations that linked former New Zealand captain Martin Crowe to cricket's match-fixing scandal.
The head of the International Cricket Council's corruption probe, Sir Paul Condon, said yesterday that he had imposed a July 1 deadline on Gupta to "bring some closure" to allegations entangling a number of leading players.
Crowe, a former test captain, was due to meet the New Zealand investigation team - retired judge Sir Ian Barker and lawyer Nick Davidson - one day before that deadline, Condon said.
Members of Condon's ICC anti-corruption unit would attend the June 30 meeting.
Davidson has said the investigation was to a large degree dependent on assistance from Condon's anti-corruption unit in obtaining "primary evidence."
Such evidence would almost certainly have to come from Gupta.
Gupta, a central figure in the ICC's match-fixing and corruption probe, has alleged that Crowe accepted $US20,000 ($48,744) from him during the 1992 World Cup. He claimed the money was for pitch, weather and team information.
He had repeated those allegations, and those made about other players, to the anti-corruption unit in two meetings in March, Condon said.
"In our terms that is not enough to go forward to discipline proceedings," he said. "It's unfair to [have this] hanging over players' heads or over cricket generally.
"Mr Gupta has really got to stand up and be counted before disciplinary hearings in various parts of the world, or provide some legally satisfactory deposition - he's done neither so far and we're seeking to bring that to a head as soon as possible.
"He will either agree to be a formal witness, or he won't. Really, it's make-your-mind-up time, Mr Gupta."
Condon said Gupta had been offered safety reassurances should he have to travel to give evidence.
Crowe had refused to fix matches, Gupta told India's Central Bureau of Investigation last year.
Crowe said he had spoken to Gupta by telephone in 1991, but believed he was a journalist.
He said he was paid $US3000 ($7311) for what he thought would be a series of articles. He broke off contact when he discovered Gupta was a bookmaker.
Gupta alleged that money was also offered or paid to former West Indies skipper Brian Lara, former England captain Alec Stewart, Australians Mark Waugh and Dean Jones, South Africa's Hansie Cronje, Sri Lanka's Aravinda de Silva and Arjuna Ranatunga, and Pakistani Salim Malik.
Cronje and Malik were subsequently banned from cricket for life.
Sir Paul would not speculate whether the cases against those named by the bookmaker would fall over should Gupta opt not to give evidence.
"Gupta's evidence wasn't the only evidence, but it was the principal evidence," he said.
Nor would he say if Crowe faced allegations additional to those made by the bookmaker.
"I don't want to prejudge the New Zealand inquiry ... It's really for them to say."
In all cases "an assessment will have to be made in relation to all the available evidence."
Sir Paul visited New Zealand for two days in February when he spoke to Sir Ian and Davidson, but he did not interview Crowe.
- NZPA
Cricket: Gupta given 10 days to put up or shut up
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