Match-fixing probe held up

NEW DELHI – Indian police have made little headway in a probe into a 2000 match-fixing scam due a problem in translating taped conversations in Afrikaans, a report said yesterday.

In 2000, police in New Delhi had filed a case against Proteas cricketers, including then captain Hansie Cronje, and middlemen for allegedly accepting money to influence the outcome of matches. But the police said they had made no progress in the case as they could not find a translator, the Hindustan Times reported.”We have approached the South African High Commission and also Jawaharlal Nehru University, but failed to find a translator,” an unnamed official of the police’s elite Crime Branch told the newspaper.Crime Branch joint police commissioner Ranjit Narayan, who on Thursday questioned batsman Herschelle Gibbs over the scandal, said police were still looking for someone to decipher the conversations.Gibbs had admitted accepting money from Cronje to score fewer than 20 runs against India in a one-dayer during their March-April 2000 tour.He subsequently scored 74 runs and said he had “forgotten” about the deal, but was suspended and fined.He subsequently refused to tour India after failing to obtain assurances he would not be detained.Cronje also admitted involvement and was served with a life ban before dying in a plane crash in 2002.Gibbs arrived in the country on Wednesday for the first time since the scandal broke after a Delhi police investigation into corruption during South Africa’s tour of India in 2000.Back then, Indian police charged the then captain Hansie Cronje and team mates Gibbs, Nicky Boje and Pieter Strydom with “cheating, fraud and criminal conspiracy related to match-fixing and betting”.Gibbs was subsequently fined and suspended for six months by his national board after admitting he agreed to under-perform in a one-day international.The offer was relayed to him by the late Cronje, who was subsequently banned from cricket for life.Gibbs had declined to tour India since then over fears he may be detained.Nampa-AFPBut the police said they had made no progress in the case as they could not find a translator, the Hindustan Times reported.”We have approached the South African High Commission and also Jawaharlal Nehru University, but failed to find a translator,” an unnamed official of the police’s elite Crime Branch told the newspaper.Crime Branch joint police commissioner Ranjit Narayan, who on Thursday questioned batsman Herschelle Gibbs over the scandal, said police were still looking for someone to decipher the conversations.Gibbs had admitted accepting money from Cronje to score fewer than 20 runs against India in a one-dayer during their March-April 2000 tour.He subsequently scored 74 runs and said he had “forgotten” about the deal, but was suspended and fined.He subsequently refused to tour India after failing to obtain assurances he would not be detained.Cronje also admitted involvement and was served with a life ban before dying in a plane crash in 2002.Gibbs arrived in the country on Wednesday for the first time since the scandal broke after a Delhi police investigation into corruption during South Africa’s tour of India in 2000.Back then, Indian police charged the then captain Hansie Cronje and team mates Gibbs, Nicky Boje and Pieter Strydom with “cheating, fraud and criminal conspiracy related to match-fixing and betting”.Gibbs was subsequently fined and suspended for six months by his national board after admitting he agreed to under-perform in a one-day international.The offer was relayed to him by the late Cronje, who was subsequently banned from cricket for life.Gibbs had declined to tour India since then over fears he may be detained.Nampa-AFP