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| May 15, 2000 | ||
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ICC TELECAST SCANDAL It's not certain yet how effective the
Anti-Corruption Investigation set up by the ICC will be
The meeting, held at the offices of the
England and Wales Cricket Board, had among its delegates Sidath Wettimuny
from Sri Lanka, Pat Rousseau and Sir Clyde Walcott from the West Indies
and Jimmy Rayani from Kenya. No sooner had ICC President Jagmohan Dalmiya
made his opening address than England Cricket Board Chairman Lord Ian
MacLaurin intervened. Dalmiya was not only chairman of the emergency
meeting, but also the subject of considerable attention. While accusations
of match-fixing and bribe-taking have been levelled at various cricketers,
administrators have not been above suspicion either. MacLaurin read out a
prepared statement and asked all delegates to sign it as a declaration of
collective integrity. The boards of England and Australia, the old cricket
powers who used to dominate the ICC with their veto powers, had made
preparations. Among other things, MacLaurin's
declaration read: " ... I ask that the Executive Board of the ICC
require of its directors and delegates to sign undertakings that they have
no financial interest, direct or indirect, in the game of cricket other
than those which have been declared to their domestic Board and which are
in the public domain ... I propose a panel of individuals in whom the
members of ICC have the greatest confidence be given by each director or
delegate in writing the authority to inspect any financial accounts in
which the director or delegate has an interest ... " If this stratagem was designed to catch
Dalmiya out, it failed. He signed straight away like all the others,
declaring that he had no undisclosed interests in the game. Dalmiya went further by making a detailed
denial of any wrong-doing during the negotiations for the broadcasting
rights of the 1998 ICC Knock-Out tournament in Dhaka. That evening, in a
press briefing, ICC Chief Executive David Richards elaborated on the main
points of Dalmiya's defence. Away from the meeting, other questions
were being raised. Also in London was former BCCI president Inderjit Singh
Bindra, armed with material to attack his successor, Dalmiya. Bindra had
asked the ICC before the meeting if he could address it in person and
present various documents, including those relating to the ICC Knock-Out
and papers given to him by Arun Agrawal, the financial adviser Doordarshan
brought in to investigate sports scams. Bindra was refused permission, but
was told he could make a written submission to the ICC before their annual
meeting on June 20. Bindra's crusade has been against what he
sees as a too-cosy relationship between Dalmiya and Mark Mascarenhas'
WorldTel, which has secured broadcasting rights to several cricket
tournaments played in Dhaka and Sharjah during Dalmiya's reign. A feature
of events since Cronje-gate surfaced on April 7 has been Mascarenhas'
role. The idea of an Anti-Corruption
Investigation mooted during the meeting found immediate favour. The
Anti-Corruption Investigator's profile was also agreed upon: he should
have a legal background, not be too old, and report to Lord William
Griffiths -- the ICC Code of Conduct Commission chairman -- while acting
independently. A budget of US$1 million is understood to have been
approved. Any thoughts of granting amnesty to persons making a full
confession were quickly dismissed as too soft and impractical. For even if
the ICC were to take no action against a confessor, the police could well
do so. Dalmiya announced stringent penalties,
including life bans, for anyone found guilty of corrupt behaviour. All
current international cricketers and officials would be checked under the
Anti-Corruption Investigation. Any member country not fully co-operative
in inquiries would be liable for suspension from the ICC and international
cricket. Dalmiya also said that players' conduct
was more important than venues, yet many feel venues are the crux, the
one-day tournaments in Sharjah being the main suspect. The question of
Dhaka too keeps recurring: why culminate the ICC Cricket Week, and other
tournaments, in a non-Test playing country? Richards has spoken admiringly of
Dalmiya's desire to globalise the game but is this motiveless altruism?
Taking one-day internationals to Toronto and Singapore produces big TV
audiences but such small crowds that it is unlikely cricket will be
cultivated in this new soil. The verdict on Dalmiya, if only by a majority
decision, must be that he seems driven by ulterior motives and has done
more to ruin cricket than run it. Whether the whole truth about the last
two decades in international cricket will ever be unearthed, even by the
most zealous investigator, remains to be seen. For in this affair, solid
documentary proof has been almost impossible to come by. The prophecy
"IN TIME ALL WILL BE REVEALED" may indeed be fulfilled. But
probably, not any time before 2015, at the earliest. Scyld Berry is cricket
correspondent of the Sunday Telegraph, London. |
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A
good omen for the emergency ICC meeting held last week in London was to be
found at the entrance to the west London hotel where the delegates stayed.
A time capsule, not to be opened until the year 2015, has been set in the
concrete in front of the hotel by the Earl of Lichfield. The slab covering
the capsule bears the words: "IN TIME ALL WILL BE REVEALED".