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Close to
five months after a mention in his testimony to King Commission, former
South African wicket-keeper David Richardson today revealed that it was an
Indian player who made bribery offers to team-mate Pat Symcox on the 1996
tour of India. Richardson told total-cricket from Cape Town, South Africa,
"That gentleman is one of the five Indian players impeached in the
CBI report. He made an offer to Pat (Symcox) in 1996 which he immediately
rejected."
Mohammed Azharuddin, Ajay Jadeja, Nayan Mongia, Manoj Prabhakar and Ajay
Sharma are the five accused in the CBI report of being involved with the
bookies. Richardson is a part of the TV commentary team for the New
Zealand-South Africa one-day series, which also includes off-spinner,
Symcox.
Symcox, in his testimony on June 7, said that he was approached by a
current international player to under-perform in 1996. But he didn't
divulge the name of that cricketer and preferred addressing him as "Mr
X". One week later, on June 13, Richardson corroborated before the
Commission that he was in the know of the offer made to Symcox.
The said offer was the third made to Symcox, the other two being made by
sacked South African skipper, Hansie Cronje in 1994 and 1996. He had told
the Commission, "We were booking into a hotel in Bombay (Mumbai) or
Delhi and chatted a bit. He asked whether I would be interested in getting
involved in some betting. It seemed strange to ask me because at that
stage I wasn't sure whether I would be in the team. I turned it
down."
Meanwhile, Symcox declined to identify the player out of the five tainted
by fixing allegations. With Prabhakar and Sharma long finishing their
international cricketers, Azhar, Mongia or Jadeja are suspected of having
made the offers. "The inquiry here in South Africa is still on. I
can't disclose the name before it is over," Symcox told
total-cricket. |
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