Cricket: Match-fixing scandal 'will get worse'

CHRISTCHURCH - Former New Zealand cricket captain John Reid believes the match-fixing scandal which has rocked the sport "will go from worse to worse."

"There is likely to be a tremendous aftermath to all this," Reid said yesterday.

Reid was in Christchurch for a reunion of the team who won New Zealand's first test - against the West Indies - at Eden Park in March 1956.

Reid, now an international match referee, said there were often rumours about bookmakers being involved in games.

"You get wind of these types of things, but you have to have evidence, and how do you get that? It's a very difficult situation, but you can't do anything without evidence.

"I think these revelations are a tragedy for world cricket. I fear they will go from worse to worse."

Reid, who was the captain of the 1956 team who beat the West Indies, said match-fixing was never mentioned back then.

In that series, New Zealand lost the first two tests by an innings and the third by nine wickets.

Reid said the turnaround in the last test, which New Zealand won by 190 runs, was the result of careful planning.

"We had to bowl tight and not give them any room to play their expansive shots. We did that and we also took all the catches, which we hadn't done in the previous three tests."

New Zealand dismissed the West Indies for 77 in their second innings.

Yesterday's reunion, which coincided with the South Island launch of a book written by Reid, also had a poignant moment. John Beck, who featured in a crucial partnership of 104 with Reid in the first innings, died in Waikanae on Monday. The youngest member of the team then at 21, he intended to be at the reunion.

- NZPA