Softball: We're not cheats, says Black Sox boss

Softball New Zealand chief executive Haydn Smith says claims by two Canadian players that the Black Sox "cheated" to win the world championship this week are "ridiculous".

"Players who come second are looking for excuses all the time," Smith said.

Two players for the Canadian runners-up have accused hosts New Zealand of cheating in their 9-5 win in the final last Sunday.

Ryan Wolfe and Jody Eidt claimed on their arrival home that the New Zealanders received unfair help from a video camera during the gold medal game.

The CBC Sports Online website reports the Canadian players were upset about a video camera behind the fence during the final.

"During the final, our team complained to tournament officials and they ordered the camera to be shut off," said Wolfe.

"But by then, the score was already 6-3. All I know is they scored less runs with the camera off than they did with it on."

Eidt said the Canadian team leader walked out to centre field during the final and found a woman with a laptop computer and video camera relaying the catcher's signals to the coach, and then to the batter.

"Considering they hit their first three home runs off of change-ups, it doesn't seem like too strange a theory to say that they were stealing signals for the first half of the game," Eidt told CBC.

Wolfe said the Canadians had suspicions before the game and "everything we suspected seemed to play out".

The Canadians upset the Black Sox 5-4 earlier in the pool round, but in the first of the two sides' play-off games, the New Zealanders won 13-5 - a game which also sparked bitterness, with two incidents which emptied the dugouts.

But Smith said yesterday Softball New Zealand was not taking the criticism too seriously.

He said all top international sports teams recorded games to review and analyse, but it was usually only reviewed some time after the match.

"It's not acted on at the time," he said. "We ... absolutely, categorically refute this suggestion ."

- NZPA