Fixing claims cast new shadow on Australia win

The former Australia captain Ian Chappell says revelations place considerable doubt on the Test against Pakistan in January.

The former Australia captain Ian Chappell says revelations about a match-fixing scheme by Pakistan in England again places considerable doubt on the outcome of Pakistan's Sydney Test against Australia in January. An England-based Pakistan player agent arrested for alleged corruption claimed he made more than a million dollars betting on a game that saw Australia come-from-behind for an extraordinary victory.

Ricky Ponting's team trailed Pakistan by more than 200 runs after the first innings, and with eight wickets down in the second innings had only a 50-run lead when Nathan Hauritz became the eighth man out and Peter Siddle joined Mike Hussey in the middle. The Pakistan wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal dropped four catches from the pair, including three from Hussey, who - with the aid of some extraordinary field placings - scored 134 not out.

There were claims in Pakistan after the game that the match was fixed, but they were never proved. Akmal was dropped from the next game, however. "Obviously for them to lose that game they had to be one of two things: the worst Test players of all time or the best match-fixers of all time," Chappell said in The Australian newspaper today. "As a cricketer everything I have seen so far has been quite shocking to tell the truth," the winning Australia captain Ricky Ponting told ABC radio today. "The way we won (in Sydney) was one of the more satisfying moments that I've had on the cricket field. "And now when some of these things come to light is when you start to slightly doubt some of the things that have happened. "We all felt that we'd done everything in our power after a shaky start on day one. "It wasn't until ... maybe even a couple of months after that game was over that it (match-fixing speculation) all sort of started."

Former ICC boss Malcolm Speed says the Sydney match needs to be reinvestigated. "The Sydney Test was under a cloud earlier this year. But yes that needs to be looked at again," Speed told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. The arrested agent, who was in Australia with the Pakistan side during the Test series, boasted to Britain's News of the World he had arranged the result. "Let me tell you the last Test we did," Mazhar Majeed said on secret recordings. "It was the second Test against Australia in Sydney. Australia had two more wickets left. They had a lead of 10 runs, yeah. And Pakistan had all their wickets remaining.

"The odds for Pakistan to lose that match, for Australia to win that match, were I think 40-1. We let them get up to 150 then everyone lost their wickets. "That one we made 1.3 (million dollars). But that's what I mean, you can get up to a million. Tests is where the biggest money is because those situations arise." Majeed, who is also a property developer, told the News of the World reporter that bowlers would deliver no-balls in the Lord's Test, which they did at exactly the nominated time. He claimed close links to Mohammad Aamer, Mohammad Asif and Akmal.

Aamer and Asif both bowled the no-balls. All of the named players were involved in the Sydney Test except Aamer. On Sunday, England wrapped up the Lord's Test before lunch, winning by an innings and 225 runs and taking the series 3-1. Speed, an Australian who was the chief executive of the ICC from 2001-2008, says he is concerned by what "looks a fairly compelling case" of rigged betting and thinks a team ban could be in order.

"I think that's (suspension) an option. It's serious," Speed said. "It looks as though it is endemic that several of the team members are involved and have been for some time. So perhaps they need a rest. The News of the World do this sort of thing very well and it's very graphic." "(It's) great that they've been caught in England where there is a very sophisticated legal system that deals with conspiracy and specifically with cheating in sport. So I see that as a major positive."

* Agencies