Pakistan cricket and West Indies' master batsman Brian Lara are set to come back under the microscope of anti-corruption investigators, according to inquiry chief Sir Paul Condon. International Cricket Council president Malcolm Gray today revealed a second judicial inquiry will begin shortly, this time looking at allegations Pakistan threw two matches in the 1999 World Cup in England. That inquiry will call into question Pakistan's performances in defeats against India and tournament no-hopers Bangladesh.
Australian batsman Mark Waugh today appeared before investigator Greg Melick to defend allegations made against him by illegal Indian bookmaker Mukesh Gupta, but Lara has yet to face any probe despite also having been named in an Indian police report. Waugh was accused of accepting 20,000 US dollars from Gupta for supplying weather, team and pitch information - a charge he again denied - Lara was accused of under-performing in two one-day matches in India in 1993-94.
The West Indies' cricket board has so far declined to take any action on the matter, despite all other boards having launched inquiries into the allegations against their players. But Condon, speaking in Melbourne after briefing the ICC executive on his progress in the inquiry, said an inquiry in the West Indies is imminent.
Filed by Sinéad Kissane
