John (bookmaker)
Encyclopedia
Bookmaker
A bookmaker, or bookie, is an organization or a person that takes bets on sporting and other events at agreed upon odds.- Range of events :...
who in 1994–95 gave money to Australian cricketers
Australian cricket team
The Australian cricket team is the national cricket team of Australia. It is the joint oldest team in Test cricket, having played in the first Test match in 1877...
Mark Waugh
Mark Waugh
Mark Edward Waugh AM is a former Australian cricketer, who represented Australia in Test matches from early 1991 to late 2002, and made his One-Day International debut in 1988. Waugh is regarded as one of the most elegant and gifted stroke makers to ever play the game. His nickname is "Junior" as...
and Shane Warne
Shane Warne
Shane Keith Warne is a former Australian international cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game. In 2000, he was selected by a panel of cricket experts as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century, the only specialist bowler selected in the quintet...
, in return for pitch
Cricket pitch
In the game of cricket, the cricket pitch consists of the central strip of the cricket field between the wickets - 1 chain or 22 yards long and 10 feet wide. The surface is very flat and normally covered with extremely short grass though this grass is soon removed by wear at the ends of the...
and weather information. However, according to the players, they refused to divulge more strategic material, such as team tactics and player selection policies. One of the most publicised of a series of betting controversies in cricket
Betting controversies in cricket
Cricket has had a number of controversies relating to players being involved with the betting aspects of the game. In particular, numerous players have been approached by bookmakers and bribed to, throw matches, aspects of matches Cricket has had a number of controversies relating to players being...
in the 1990s, the matter was initially covered up by the Australian Cricket Board
Cricket Australia
Cricket Australia, formerly known as the Australian Cricket Board, is the governing body for professional and amateur cricket in Australia. It was originally formed in 1905 as the Australian Board of Control for International Cricket...
(ACB), which decided that it was sufficient to privately fine the players. The ACB concluded that, since Waugh and Warne had previously accused Pakistani cricket captain Saleem Malik
Saleem Malik
Saleem Malik is a former Pakistani cricketer who played between 1981/82 and 1999, at one stage captaining the Pakistani cricket team. He was a right-handed wristy middle order batsman who was strong square of the wicket. His legbreak bowling was also quite effective...
of attempting to bribe them to lose matches, their credibility as witnesses would be damaged if their own involvement with John was publicised. The ACB reported the matter to the International Cricket Council
International Cricket Council
The International Cricket Council is the international governing body of cricket. It was founded as the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909 by representatives from England, Australia and South Africa, renamed the International Cricket Conference in 1965, and took up its current name in 1989.The...
, and there the matter ended.
When the issue was uncovered by the media in late-1998, the two players were widely condemned by the press and public, as was the ACB for their cover-up. Waugh received a hostile reaction from the Australian public when he walked out to bat during a Test match
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
immediately after the news broke. On the other hand, the sports community was generally supportive of the players. The ACB appointed Rob O'Regan
Rob O'Regan
Rob O'Regan is an Australian Barrister and former head of the Queensland Criminal Justice Commission. He is also known for his involvement with the Australian Red Cross, gaining the position of chairman in 2001....
QC
Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...
to conduct an independent inquiry into the matter. O'Regan concluded that the fines were inadequate and wrote that a suspension for a "significant time" would have been a more appropriate penalty. He strongly condemned the players' behaviour and their failure as role models for young fans. O'Regan further added that players needed to be better informed about the dangers of gambling and unauthorised bookmakers.
The controversy prompted Pakistan to ask the two Australian players to appear in front of their own judicial inquiry into corruption; Australia responded by granting the Pakistanis permission to hold hearings in Australia with full privileges. The players were questioned about their accusations against Malik, and whether their dealings with John detracted from their credibility. Both Waugh and Warne denied any suggestions they played with less determination in the matches in question, pointing to the fact that they were among the leading players in the matches that they claimed were subjected to offers of bribery.
Involvement with bookmaker
During the Singer World Series tournament in Sri LankaSri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
in September 1994, which involved India
Indian cricket team
The Indian cricket team is the national cricket team of India. Governed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India , it is a full member of the International Cricket Council with Test and One Day International status....
, Sri Lanka
Sri Lankan cricket team
The Sri Lankan cricket team is the national cricket team of Sri Lanka. The team first played international cricket in 1926–27, and were later awarded Test status in 1981, which made Sri Lanka the eighth Test cricket playing nation...
, Pakistan
Pakistani cricket team
The Pakistan cricket team is the national cricket team of Pakistan. Pakistan, represented by the Pakistan Cricket Board , is a full member of the International Cricket Council, and thus participates in , and cricket matches....
and Australia, the Australian team stayed at the Oberoi Hotel in the capital Colombo
Colombo
Colombo is the largest city of Sri Lanka. It is located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte, the capital of Sri Lanka. Colombo is often referred to as the capital of the country, since Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte is a satellite city of Colombo...
. There was a casino in close proximity to the hotel, which Waugh and Warne visited. Team manager Colin Egar
Colin Egar
Colin John "Col" Egar was an Australian Test cricket umpire.Born in Malvern, South Australia, Egar umpired 29 Test matches between 1960 and 1969.- First-class debut :...
had advised Warne that he had been told that the venue was unsavoury, but he was vague in his comments, and at the time, casinos were not perceived as trouble spots or traps for unwary cricketers.
Waugh was approached at the Oberoi by an Indian man, who was also staying at the hotel. The man called himself "John" and gave no surname. John said he was a bookmaker and asked Waugh to provide pitch and weather information; he also asked the Australian to reveal inside knowledge about the team, such as tactics and player selections, in exchange for US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
4,000. Waugh accepted the money and agreed to provide information about the pitch and weather, but he refused to divulge the tactics that the Australians intended to use against their opposition, or information on which players would play and what their role would be. Information on pitch conditions provide an insight into the strategies that the team might adopt and which players might be used, and teams will field different players depending on the pitch, as their skills are suited to different conditions. The arrangement with John remained in place until the end of the 1994–95 Australian summer. Waugh later said that at the time, he did not see anything wrong with his actions, reasoning that the agreement was similar to a player speculating about their form and the playing conditions in a pre-match media interview.
Roulette
Roulette is a casino game named after a French diminutive for little wheel. In the game, players may choose to place bets on either a single number or a range of numbers, the colors red or black, or whether the number is odd or even....
; he had a bad night and lost US$5,000. John introduced himself to Warne as a person who bet on cricket matches. The next day he invited Warne to his hotel room and, describing himself as a big fan, flattered Warne's leg spin
Leg spin
Leg spin is a type of spin bowling in the sport of cricket. A leg spinner bowls right-arm with a wrist spin action, causing the ball to spin from right to left in the cricket pitch, at the point of delivery. When the ball bounces, the spin causes the ball to deviate sharply from right to left, that...
ning abilities. Warne accepted a US$5,000 gift, with "no strings attached", which covered his gambling losses. Warne reported that he initially rejected the gift, but accepted the offer at the insistence of John, who said that he would be offended if the offer was declined. (Warne later lost this money at the casino.) Warne wrote in his autobiography that John told him that he was a wealthy man and that the payment was a token of his appreciation—he had made money by betting on Australian victories in the past.
The two players did not tell their teammates or management about the deal, feeling that their interactions with bookmakers would meet with disapproval. However, they said that they did not feel that their liaisons were harming their team's chances in any way. They remained silent even after they reported Pakistan captain Salim Malik for attempting to bribe them during the team's subsequent tour of Pakistan. Australian coach Bob Simpson
Bob Simpson (cricketer)
Robert Baddeley Simpson AO is a former cricketer who played for New South Wales, Western Australia and Australia, captaining the national team from 1963–64 until 1967–68, and again in 1977–78. He later had a highly successful term as the coach of the Australian team...
later said that he was unaware of these events, asserting that his anti-betting attitude would have deterred any players from discussing their involvement in such matters with him.
Both players kept in contact with John throughout the 1994–95 Australian summer, when England toured for five Tests. Warne spoke with John three times during the season, while Waugh continued to deliver pitch and weather conditions. An inquiry conducted by Rob O'Regan
Rob O'Regan
Rob O'Regan is an Australian Barrister and former head of the Queensland Criminal Justice Commission. He is also known for his involvement with the Australian Red Cross, gaining the position of chairman in 2001....
QC in late-1998 and early-1999 concluded the following:
Secretly punished
In early-1995, snippets of information about the world of cricket betting and match-fixing began to be reported by the media. Phil Wilkins of the Sydney Morning Herald reported that an unnamed Pakistani player had attempted to bribe Tim MayTim May
Timothy Brian Alexander May is a former cricketer for South Australia and Australia, who is currently a leading players' representative in his role as Chief Executive of the Federation of International Cricketers' Associations...
, Warne and Waugh during Australia's tour of the country in late-1994, immediately after the Singer Trophy. The player was later identified as Saleem Malik
Saleem Malik
Saleem Malik is a former Pakistani cricketer who played between 1981/82 and 1999, at one stage captaining the Pakistani cricket team. He was a right-handed wristy middle order batsman who was strong square of the wicket. His legbreak bowling was also quite effective...
, and it was revealed that the Australian trio had privately reported him for offering them money to throw matches.
As a result of the media interest, the ACB privately launched an investigation to determine if any Australian players had been involved with bookmakers. Journalists told officials about speculation that an Australian player was having financial dealings with bookmakers, after Mark Ray
Mark Ray
Mark Ray is a former Australian first-class cricket player, who played for New South Wales in the 1981/82 season, before moving to Tasmania, where he played for Tasmania from 1982/83 until he retired in 1985/86...
of the Sunday Age received an anonymous letter alleging that Waugh and Warne were being paid by a bookmaker for information. Following a private investigation opened by team manager Ian McDonald, Waugh and Warne wrote unsigned handwritten statements on 20 February 1995, acknowledging their involvement. The statements were faxed and sent to Graham Halbish, the CEO of the ACB. Warne and Waugh were called to Sydney for an interview with ACB chairman Alan Crompton
Alan Crompton
Alan Crompton is an English former footballer who played as a midfielder for Sunderland, Blackburn Rovers, Wigan Athletic and Runcorn....
at the team hotel, where the Australians had assembled before departing for a tour of the West Indies. The pair admitted their involvement with the bookmaker and were fined A$
Australian dollar
The Australian dollar is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu...
10,000 and A$8,000 respectively; at the time, these were the highest fines ever imposed on Australian cricketers.
The report compiled by Halbish and Crompton was privately forwarded to the ACB's remaining directors and the International Cricket Council
International Cricket Council
The International Cricket Council is the international governing body of cricket. It was founded as the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909 by representatives from England, Australia and South Africa, renamed the International Cricket Conference in 1965, and took up its current name in 1989.The...
(ICC). The ICC was not informed directly; the ACB delivered the news to their chairman Clyde Walcott
Clyde Walcott
Sir Clyde Leopold Walcott, KA, GCM was a West Indian cricketer. Walcott was a member of the "three W's", the other two being Everton Weekes and Frank Worrell: all were very successful batsmen from Barbados, born within a short distance of each other in Bridgetown, Barbados in a period of 18...
and chief executive David Richards. Crompton and Halbish did not consult the other board members before making their decision and effectively handed them a fait accompli
Fait Accompli
Fait accompli is a French phrase which means literally "an accomplished deed". It is commonly used to describe an action which is completed before those affected by it are in a position to query or reverse it...
; they failed to inform their colleagues until the players had left for the West Indies tour.
The other board members were told about the matter at the end of the meeting. The minutes of the meeting read:
Some board members were uncomfortable with the way the matter was handled. Bob Merriman said that the other board members were "absolutely pizzled [angry]. I don't know what the vote was because there was nobody there". Malcolm Gray said that "it was disgraceful that the Board hadn't been informed before". Damien Mullins said he thought "it was poor and unsatisfactory".
Crompton and Halbish knew that if the involvement of Waugh and Warne with bookmakers were to be revealed, the credibility of the two players as witnesses against the Pakistani captain Malik would be severely questioned, as they too were involved in activities associated with unregistered gambling. Furthermore, there would be significant pressure on the ACB to ban the players, so they decided to cover-up the matter. Board member Cam Battersby said, "The only way he [Malik] was ever going to be convicted was if our evidence was credible ... Revealing the information...would provide an excuse for Pakistan to do nothing". However, the ACB prepared a press release, in case the matter was leaked. The ACB's legal adviser Graeme Johnson later said that he had told Crompton that they were not obliged to tell the press about the matter.
Initially, coach Simpson was not informed; when he found out, he was angry that the ACB had not trusted him enough to tell him what his players had done. Captain Mark Taylor
Mark Taylor (cricketer)
Mark Anthony Taylor, AO is a former Australian cricket player and Test opening batsman from 1988–1999, as well as captain from 1994–1999, succeeding Allan Border...
was also aware of the issue by the time he took the team to the West Indies
British West Indies
The British West Indies was a term used to describe the islands in and around the Caribbean that were part of the British Empire The term was sometimes used to include British Honduras and British Guiana, even though these territories are not geographically part of the Caribbean...
, as were vice-captain Ian Healy
Ian Healy
Ian Andrew Healy is a former cricketer who played for Queensland and Australia. A specialist wicketkeeper and useful right-hand middle-order batsman, he made an unheralded entry to international cricket in 1988, after only six first-class games. His work ethic and combativeness was much needed...
and Waugh's brother Steve
Steve Waugh
Stephen Rodger "Steve" Waugh, AO is a former Australian cricketer and fraternal twin of cricketer Mark Waugh. A right-handed batsman, he was also a successful medium-pace bowler...
.
Aftermath
In December 1998, before the Third Test between Australia and England at the Adelaide OvalAdelaide Oval
The Adelaide Oval is a sports ground in Adelaide, South Australia, located in the parklands between the Central Business District and North Adelaide...
, the journalist Malcolm Conn
Malcolm Conn
Malcolm Conn is an Australian journalist best known for writing about cricket. He is the News Limited chief cricket writer.Conn won a Walkley Award in 1999 for his coverage of the John the bookmaker controversy involving Australian cricketers Shane Warne and Mark Waugh....
of The Australian
The Australian
The Australian is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia from Monday to Saturday each week since 14 July 1964. The editor in chief is Chris Mitchell, the editor is Clive Mathieson and the 'editor-at-large' is Paul Kelly....
uncovered the story of John. His report on the matter won him a Walkley Award for journalism. On December 8, three days before the start of the Test, Conn informed Malcolm Speed
Malcolm Speed
Malcolm Walter Speed is an Australian businessman and the former CEO of the International Cricket Council.Before he entered the world of cricket, he was a barrister in Melbourne. He was originally the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Cricket Board from 1997 until in 2001, he took up the...
—the CEO of the ACB—that he was going to reveal the details of a cover-up of the fines that were imposed on Waugh. At the time, Conn was unaware of Warne's involvement. The ACB responded by pre-empting Conn and releasing a statement, revealing that two unnamed players had been fined in 1994–95 for having financial dealings with bookmakers. Later that evening, former Test cricketer, David Hookes
David Hookes
David William Hookes was an Australian cricketer, broadcaster and coach of the Victorian cricket team. An aggressive left-handed batsman, Hookes usually batted in the middle order...
, now a sports broadcaster, named Waugh and Warne on the Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
radio station 3AW
3AW
3AW is a talkback radio station in Melbourne, Australia on 693 kHz AM. It began transmission on 22 February 1932 as Melbourne's fifth commercial radio station.-History:...
. The next day, Conn's story was released on the front page, with the headline "Cricket's Betting Scandal". The article was accompanied by a picture of Waugh with his hand on his head.
On the morning of the publication of Conn's article, the managers of Warne and Waugh organised a media conference after Australia's training session. Both players faced a room packed with media and read prepared statements. Both said they had been "naive and stupid". Waugh concluded:
Much to their discontent, the media were not allowed to ask questions. Patrick Smith
Patrick Smith (journalist)
Patrick Smith is an Australian sports journalist.He is noted for his pieces in The Australian newspapers' sports section. He also appears on Hungry for Sport with Kevin Bartlett on SEN 1116....
of The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
said, "To deliver such bland explanations to the world media as they did yesterday and then not accept questions was contemptuous of the Australian public they have let down so badly." The press attention was so intense that when Waugh attempted to relax with a round of golf at a local course, media helicopters flew overhead.
The players were widely condemned by the media and public; Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Australia
The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...
John Howard
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
stated that he felt an "intense feeling of disappointment", while former player Neil Harvey
Neil Harvey
Robert Neil Harvey MBE is a former Australian cricketer who represented the Australian cricket team between 1948 and 1963, playing in 79 Test matches. He was the vice-captain of the team from 1957 until his retirement...
called for bans. Malik, whom Warne and Waugh had accused of attempting to bribe them, said that he was delighted at the revelation. The Pakistani player said that the revelations discredited his accusers and vindicated his protestations of innocence. On the preceding tour of Pakistan a few months earlier, Waugh had appeared before a Pakistan Cricket Board
Pakistan Cricket Board
The Pakistan Cricket Board is a sporting organization that is responsible for governing all professional cricket including Test cricket and One Day International matches played in Pakistan...
judicial inquiry in Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
to present his claims against Malik; the inquiry questioned the credibility of both Australian players and asked them to return to Pakistan to re-present their accounts of the events.
The sports community strongly supported the players. May, the President of the Australian Cricketers' Association
Australian Cricketers' Association
The Australian Cricketers’ Association is an organisation that represents the professional first-class cricketers of Australia, both past and present. It is not a formally registered Trade Union, but an Incorporated Association...
, and co-accuser of Malik, pledged his organisation's support for the players, whom he described as "outstanding servants of Australian cricket". Waugh received similar statements of support from sports identities. Warne's first Australian captain, Allan Border
Allan Border
Allan Robert Border AO is a former Australian cricketer. A batsman, Border was for many years the captain of the Australian team. His playing nickname was "A.B.". He played 156 Test matches in his career, a record until it was passed by fellow Australian Steve Waugh...
, defended him, as did former captain and leading commentator Richie Benaud
Richie Benaud
Richard "Richie" Benaud OBE is a former Australian cricketer who, since his retirement from international cricket in 1964, has become a highly regarded commentator on the game....
. Sir Don Bradman, widely regarded as the greatest batsman of all time, and former ACB chairman, said that Warne was one of the best influences on Australian cricket for generations, and that the dealings with John did not change this.
Media and public opinion was more hostile. The Sydney Morning Herald ran the headline "Baggy Green Shame" while The Australian wrote of the "$11,000 price of disgrace". Many newspaper columns and letters to the editor attacked the players. The editorial of The Australian stated that "Waugh and Warne said yesterday they had been naïve and stupid. Put the emphasis on the second adjective—and add greedy." Readers called for the players to be banned from playing for Australia as well as the sacking of the ACB officials who had kept the matter secret; some said that the players should never be appointed to leadership roles in the cricket community. In the Weekend Australian of 12 December, Warwick Hadfield and Brian Woodley editorialised that "Warne is in need of some good advice, but not from business managers and PR folk too happy to tell him how wonderful he is in order to flog a few more videos, books, pairs of duds, sports shoes or anti-smoking ads". Warne's major sponsors reviewed their partnerships with him, and three newspapers, the Daily Mirror of the United Kingdom, The Age of Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
and the Sydney Morning Herald severed their ties with him.
A few days later, in the wake of the scandal, Waugh was widely jeered by an Australian crowd when he walked out to bat on the first day of the Test. In what he described as the toughest day of his career, Waugh gave an unconvincing and hesitant performance. Waugh managed only seven runs
Run (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, a run is the basic unit of scoring. Runs are scored by a batsman, and the aggregate of the scores of a team's batsmen constitutes the team's score. A batsman scoring 50 or 100 runs , or any higher multiple of 50 runs, is considered a particular achievement...
in 36 minutes before being removed by Peter Such
Peter Such
Peter Mark Such is an English cricketer. A hard-working county off-spinner, Such was brought into the Test arena in 1993 as a replacement for John Emburey but, despite taking 6 for 67 on debut, only played an initial 4 Tests before having to wait 5 years before his next appearance.Such enjoyed a...
, caught and bowled
Bowled
Bowled is a method of dismissing a batsman in the sport of cricket. This method of dismissal is covered by Law 30 of the Laws of cricket.A batsman is out bowled if his wicket is put down by a ball delivered by the bowler...
. The cricket writer Peter Roebuck
Peter Roebuck
Peter Michael Roebuck was an English cricketer who achieved later renown as an Australian newspaper columnist and radio commentator. A consistent county performer with over 25,000 runs, and "one of the better English openers of the 1980s", Roebuck captained the English county side Somerset...
opined that it was the worst home crowd reception for an Australian player that he could remember. Warne was injured at the time and did not play, so he did not have to face the hostile crowd.
Later inquiries
On 8 January 1999, Pakistan's Judicial Commission held a hearing in Melbourne into bribery and match-fixing. The commission had originally summoned Waugh and Warne to Pakistan but the ACB instead decided to offer them court privileges in Australia. Both Warne and Waugh gave evidence at the public hearing. Waugh seemed nervous and uncertain, whereas Warne appeared assured and confident. They were questioned for approximately 80 and 45 minutes respectively. The Pakistani investigators attempted to link the Australians' dealings with John to various games between Pakistan and Australia in 1994, over which they had suspicions of match-fixing.Immediately after Warne and Waugh had met John in Colombo, Australia defeated Pakistan in a one-dayer, scoring 7/179 and restricting Pakistan to 9/151 in reply. There were suspicions that the Pakistanis had thrown the game by batting slowly, although Warne said he had genuinely tried his best, pointing out that he was named man-of-the-match. Warne and May had alleged that Malik offered them money to bowl badly on the final day of the First Test in Karachi. Australia then reduced Pakistan from 3/157 to 9/258, and appeared set for victory, but a last-wicket
Wicket
In the sport of cricket the word wicket has several distinct meanings:-Definitions of wicket:Most of the time, the wicket is one of the two sets of three stumps and two bails at either end of the pitch...
partnership took them to the target of 314. The win was registered when wicket-keeper
Wicket-keeper
The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being guarded by the batsman currently on strike...
Ian Healy
Ian Healy
Ian Andrew Healy is a former cricketer who played for Queensland and Australia. A specialist wicketkeeper and useful right-hand middle-order batsman, he made an unheralded entry to international cricket in 1988, after only six first-class games. His work ethic and combativeness was much needed...
missed a stumping
Stump (cricket)
Stump is a term used in the sport of cricket where it has three different meanings:# part of the wicket# a manner of dismissing a batsman# the end of the day's play .-Part of the wicket:...
chance from Warne and the ball went for four byes
Bye (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, a bye is a run scored by the batting team when the ball has not been hit by the batsman and the ball has not hit the batsman's body.-Scoring byes:...
. Warne denied that he had thrown the match, again pointing out he was named man-of-the-match. Waugh had alleged that Malik offered him money to help Australia lose a one-dayer during the same tour. He denied the allegation that he did so. Waugh scored an unbeaten 121, but it was not enough to prevent Australia from suffering a nine-wicket defeat.
Waugh denied betting on cricket, but said he had given John information "about ten times", contradicting his earlier statement that the pair had only talked on "a handful" of occasions. Warne testified that he gave pitch and weather information to John before matches three times—a one-dayer against England at the Sydney Cricket Ground
Sydney Cricket Ground
The Sydney Cricket Ground is a sports stadium in Sydney in Australia. It is used for Australian football, Test cricket, One Day International cricket, some rugby league and rugby union matches and is the home ground for the New South Wales Blues cricket team and the Sydney Swans of the Australian...
in December 1994, the Second Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground
Melbourne Cricket Ground
The Melbourne Cricket Ground is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne and is home to the Melbourne Cricket Club. It is the tenth largest stadium in the world, the largest in Australia, the largest stadium for playing cricket, and holds the world record for the highest light...
and the Fifth Test at the WACA Ground
WACA Ground
The WACA is a sports stadium in Perth, Western Australia. WACA are the initials of its owners and operators, the Western Australian Cricket Association....
.
Crompton was the last witness. He said that Warne and Waugh's actions "amounted to a breach of the players' contract in that it brought the game of cricket into disrepute". He said that it was normal for off-field disciplinary breaches to be dealt with in private, while the fallout of on-field incidents was made public. Compton parried Pakistani accusations that he had covered-up the affair. He said that if the matter had been made public, it would have been confused with bribery. The front-page headline in the Melbourne tabloid Herald Sun
Herald Sun
The Herald Sun is a morning tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia. It is published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Limited, itself a subsidiary of News Corporation. It is available for purchase throughout Melbourne, Regional Victoria, Tasmania, the Australian Capital...
subsequently read "MATCH FIX", accompanied by pictures of Warne and Waugh. The players responded that "the matter [of the headline] was in the hands of their lawyers". The next day, the headline read "INNOCENT".
Following the public outcry over the suppression of the incident, the ACB appointed Rob O'Regan
Rob O'Regan
Rob O'Regan is an Australian Barrister and former head of the Queensland Criminal Justice Commission. He is also known for his involvement with the Australian Red Cross, gaining the position of chairman in 2001....
QC to head up a Player Conduct Inquiry. His assistants conducted 60 preliminary interviews and O'Regan made ten himself. O'Regan released his report on 28 February 1999. He described the fines as "inadequate" as their size "did not reflect the seriousness of what they had done". He suggested that a "suspension for a significant time" was more appropriate.
O'Regan said that Australian players were not prepared for playing cricket in Asia, as they were not aware of the dangers of bookmakers and betting on the Indian subcontinent
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...
. He recommended that every new player should be warned of the dangers of becoming involved with bookmakers, and the penalties that it entails. The ICC announced that no further action would be taken against Waugh and Warne as they could not be tried twice for the same offence.