1999 World Cup: Fixing the fixers!

By John Cheeran
During the 1999 World Cup, held in England in the backdrop of match-fixing allegations raised by former Indian all rounder Manoj Prabhakar, the most newsworthy story came when Bangladesh beat Pakistan in a group match.
We glossed it over, in a rare show of Asian solidarity, describing it as the coming of age of Bangladesh as a cricketing power.
I was reporting the tournament for a New Delhi newspaper but not covering this match.
To put it right, Bangladesh did not just defeat Pakistan; they stunned the entire cricketing world. They won the Test ticket based on that one day.
Eventually, in the incestuous world of cricket, everything was forgotten.
To recall that Pakistan lost to two of its dreaded enemies in the political spectrum (Bangladesh and India, two nations that defeated Pakistan in a military battle) in that World Cup is a disturbing pointer to the havoc bookies can wreak in cricket.
The lid on match-fixing was taken off a little later in 2000 by Delhi Police. But during the 1999 World Cup Mohammad Azharuddin was Indian captain; Wasim Akram led Pakistan. I also cannot forget that Akram was humiliated for losing the final to Australia but Azharuddin got a hero’s welcome for pulling off a win (by hook or crook!) against Pakistan in Manchester at a time when Indian army was fighting Pakistan in Kargil.
In hindsight, was it a coincidence that when India defeated Pakistan on four occasions in World Cup and on the first three instances (1992, 1996 and 1999) Azharuddin led India?
Now Delhi Police have got enough leads to raise doubts about bookies’ involvement in 1999 World Cup. Delhi police are probing whether matches held in England were fixed by gambling syndicates and have requested the assistance of Scotland Yard to dig deeper.
Video footage of South Africa's matches during the 1999 World Cup and the UK bank accounts and telephone records of the former South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje have been requested by the Delhi investigators.
In 2000, April Cronje admitted accepting bribes from gambling syndicates.
Before being banned for life and later dying in a plane crash, he was the subject ofthe King Commission set up by South Africa to investigate the bribery claims. The King Commission, however, did not focus on any of the matches in the 1999 World Cup.
Bangladesh's win over Pakistan has attracted lot of attention.
South Africa's loss to Zimbabwe and a Super Series match between India and Pakistan are getting more attention. Zimbabwe and Bangladesh won when their opponents had already assured qualification.
The Indian sleuths want more information on the dealings of Cronje and Sanjeev Chawla, an Indian national living in London. Tapped telephone conversations between the two men in 2000 led Delhi police to believe thatChawla was negotiating with Cronje to fix South Africa's matches in India.
During the King Commission Cronje admitted accepting bribes from gambling syndicates to help to fix matches and individual batting scores, notably an 8,000 pounds fee to ensure his team lost a one-day international against Indiain Nagpur in March 2000.
Gibbs, his opening batsman, later admitted having agreed to accept 8,000 pounds in exchange for scoring 20 runs or less and was banned for six months.
Gibbs, who is back playing for South Africa, was questioned by Delhi Police this week. It is believed he has not told the police anything new. Asked if he knew whether Cronje fixed the matches in Britain, Gibbs said he did not know but admitted that Cronje had lied when he told the King Commission that he had never approached team-mates to throw a game for cash. Concerning the 1999 tournament in England, detectives believe that earpieces and microphones worn by Cronje and other players are an indication that South Africa's match against India at Hove, won by South Africa, was fixed.