Taylor and Waugh face Malik in the 'courtroom' (7 October 1998)
MARK TAYLOR and Mark Waugh faced their old adversary Salim Malik again 24 hours after the first Pakistan Test - this time in a legal hearing - as they told of a $200,000 (£125,000) offer to throw a game
07-Oct-1998
7 October 1998
Taylor and Waugh face Malik in the 'courtroom'
By Peter Deeley in Lahore
MARK TAYLOR and Mark Waugh faced their old adversary Salim Malik
again 24 hours after the first Pakistan Test - this time in a
legal hearing - as they told of a $200,000 (£125,000) offer to
throw a game.
The two Australians secretly left their colleagues at dawn
yesterday in the Rawalpindi team hotel and flew here protected by
a personal bodyguard to give evidence to the judicial commission
hearing allegations of match-rigging and betting by Pakistan
players.
They had demanded tight security and secrecy before they would
testify and the court agreed to sit in camera - but both had to
tell their stories under oath.
When they arrived, accompanied by Australian Cricket Board chief
executive Malcolm Speed, at the home of the commission judge
Malik Muhammad Qayyum - where the hearing was due to take place -
the Australians found the time and place had already been
publicised.
With the local media pack on their heels, the proceedings were
hurriedly shifted to the home of the chief justice and the
testimony taken in his drawing room.
That was not the only shock. The two found Malik there with a
battery of three lawyers, who cross-examined them in detail.
Taylor said afterwards: "That made us a little uneasy but we had
nothing to hide. The whole affair was not something we found
pleasant but we felt we needed to do it."
The events relate to the 1994 Australian tour of Pakistan. Then
Shane Warne and Tim May - neither of whom is in this country -
claimed Malik offered them money to "bowl badly" in the first
Karachi Test.
Along with Waugh they gave affidavits to a previous judge but the
three then declined to come to give evidence in person and Malik
was cleared because of the lack of corroborative evidence.
Pressure has been building on Taylor and Waugh to testify in
person to this new commission - which is also hearing separate
allegations against Ijaz Ahmed and Wasim Akram.
Speed came specifically to negotiate terms under which they would
appear and privacy was one of the players' top priorities. Taylor
explained: "We were worried about personal security and as
captain I was very concerned not to sour matters between the two
sides in the middle of a Test series."
The Australian captain said his evidence simply related to what
he had been told by his players. "I was just a third party."
He and Waugh were questioned about the Australians' delay in
alerting the Pakistan Cricket Board to the alleged approach by
Malik.
The Pakistan Cricket Board maintain it was four months before
they were told and board chairman Khalid Mahmood claimed after
yesterday's hearing "neither player could give us any
explanation".
Waugh, who said he was "relieved" after giving his evidence,
described how Malik had approached him at a presidential dinner
before a one-day international in Rawalpindi in 1984, asking if
he could find four or five of the Australian players willing to
help throw the game - to bat slowly and to bowl some full tosses
and long-hops.
Waugh was questioned about his relationship with Malik - whom he
described as "just an acquaintance" - and said afterwards: "I
only told the truth about what happened."
Judge Qayyum's findings are expected soon after he has heard
evidence in person from Malik and Wasim.
Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)