Scandal returns to haunt Gibbs

Scandal returns to haunt Gibbs

Herschelle Gibbs, the South African opening batsman, returned to India for the first time in six years yesterday to face fresh questioning from Indian police over his role in the Hansie Cronje match-fixing scandal.

Gibbs, 32, who has refused to tour India since 2000 fearing arrest by the Indian police, touched down in Mumbai yesterday and ran a gauntlet of television cameras before being whisked off to the South Africa team hotel.

Accompanied by his lawyer, Gibbs was spared the ignominy of arrest after agreeing to fly to New Delhi this morning to endure several hours of face-to-face questioning by a specialist team from India's Crime Branch about his role in the scandal.

Gibbs was banned from international cricket for six months and fined R60,000 (£4,000) in August 2000 after admitting that he accepted the offer of a $15,000 (£8,000) bribe to under-perform at a one-day international fixture in Nagpur in March that year.

Although the South African cricket board said in 2004 that they believed "justice had been done" by the King Commission inquiry into match fixing which exposed former South Africa captain Cronje, Indian police have never shared the view that the matter was closed.

K K Paul, the Delhi Commissioner of Police who headed the original Indian match-fixing investigation, told the Daily Telegraph yesterday that Gibbs would be required to elaborate on answers he gave to the King Commission six years ago.

"Whatever the cricket authorities decided by way of fines and bans is a matter for them alone," Paul said, "but this is a criminal investigation into a conspiracy to defraud and is a serious matter and certain procedures must be followed."

Cricket's most damaging scandal broke in April 2000 after Delhi police recorded Cronje allegedly making deals with bookmakers while conducting a telephone surveillance operation as part of an unconnected investigation.

Gibbs has already answered a written questionnaire from Delhi police over his alleged involvement in the scandal, however Indian police sources have said they need to question him further.

"This is not just a question of formalities. Mr Gibbs has agreed to co-operate in the investigation and will be asked a full range of questions, including about various bank accounts. I cannot predict what the outcome will be," Paul said.

The interrogation will focus on a one-day international of March 19 2000 at which Cronje admitted offering Gibbs $15,000 on the morning of the game if he would help affect the outcome by scoring less than 20 runs. In the event, Gibbs, who admitted initially accepting Cronje's offer, went out and scored a 54-ball 74, telling the King Commission that he "batted like a steam train after finding the wicket to my liking…and forgot about the deal." South African went on to win the match by 10 runs.

Delhi police are expected to further probe Gibbs's reasons for reneging on the deal, focusing on Gibbs's apparently 'reckless' batting and Cronje's admission to the King Commission that he had not been honest with his team-mates about the true amounts of money being offered by the bookies.

The police are also expected to press Gibbs on his relationship with Sanjay Chawla, the British-Indian bookmaker who, according to Cronje, offered $140,000 (£75,000) payment for the South African team to throw the Nagpur game.

It is understood that Gibbs has always maintained that he did not know Chawla and dealt only with Cronje, however Delhi police are expected to confront Gibbs with evidence that Chawla had stayed in the same hotels as the South African team for much of the tour.

Other reports have suggested that Gibbs will also be questioned about an earlier one-day international, at Faridabad on March 15 2000 in which Gibbs scored 19 runs during a two-wicket victory for South Africa.

Gibbs has already said that he will bring very limited new information to the Indian police inquiry which has hardly progressed for the past six years with South African players refusing to travel to India on legal advice and Chawla staying in London.

"I've got the 18 questions that they want to ask me. It's basically exactly the same stuff that I answered at the King Commission. I'll just be repeating myself," Gibbs said.

Gibbs kept his silence yesterday, but recently he admitted in a personal column on a cricket website to being 'nervous' about facing the Delhi police who he described in a recent magazine interview as 'hard-arses'.

After submitting himself for questioning, Gibbs will be allowed to take his place in South Africa's team for the opening ICC Champions Trophy fixture, a Pool B match against New Zealand on Monday in Mumbai.

However it remains to be seen whether Delhi police will share the cricketer's desire for closure on a matter which has dogged him - and them - for the last six years.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/sport/2006/10/12/scgibb12.xml