Resumption of SA's match-fixing inquiry delayed

The King Commission inquiry into corruption in South African cricket, due to resume Monday, was postponed to allow the state prosecutor to sift through evidence obtained in India, an official said.

State prosecutor Shamila Batohi was due to have talks in Cape Town on Monday aimed at setting a date for the resumption of the inquiry, commission secretary John Bacon said.

Bacon said it was hoped the hearings would resume next week but conceded that logistical problems could lead to a further delay of about a week.

Batohi was due to arrive in Cape Town Monday and spend the week sifting evidence and planning the second session of the commission, established after allegations of match-fixing against axed captain Hansie Cronje.

Batohi returned to South Africa on September 23 after a week-long visit to India where she tried acquire tapes of conversations allegedly linking Cronje to a bookmaker.

She and investigator Geoff Edwards met with officials of Indias Central Bureau of Investigations who are probing match-fixing charges against some of India's cricketing stars. But they came up against legal hurdles in their bid to obtain the full tapes of conversations between Cronje and London-based Sanjeev Chawla.

Batohi has not revealed what she obtained in India.

The first hearings of the King Commission in June led to a confession by Cronje that he had taken money from bookmakers several times during his five-year captaincy of the South African team.

He also involved fellow national players Herschelle Gibbs and Henry Williams in a conspiracy to under-perform in a one-day international in Nagpur, India, in March.

Gibbs and Williams were both suspended from international cricket for six months and fined by the United Cricket Board of South Africa.

Mail Cricket Editor