June 19, 2003	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 18, 1424

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SYDNEY, June 18: International Cricket Council (ICC)’s outgoing president Malcolm Gray has hinted that some cricket boards tried to protect their national heroes in the match-fixing scandal as a result of which not many culprits were caught.

In an interview to The Age published on Wednesday, Gray said that though ICC had been successful in suppressing match-fixing, it had been frustrating not to catch more culprits.

“One of the disappointments is probably that we didn’t get more scalps... but it’s probably understandable because we and the anti-corruption unit don’t have any legislative power. We cannot march into somebody’s house and carry out a search or we cannot arrest people so we can only do it by investigation and by persuasion,” Gray, who relinquishes his office tomorrow after a three-year term, said.

“The other reason is that there is a tendency to want to protect the sporting hero, and that’s the fans, the public and I think some of the authorities tend to as well,” he said.

Gray, who will hand over the reins to Pakistan’s Ehsan Mani on Thursday, said the crackdown on match-fixing was one of the highlights of his tenure but felt it was now time to “draw a line in the sand” and move on from the matter as it would not be worth trying to go back and find more culprits.

Meanwhile, Gray has admitted that the raging contract issue has been laced with evils like “greed, nationalism and parochialism”.

“The contracts issue was a problem that was entwined with greed, bad management, lack of communication, nationalism and parochialism,” Gray said.

“We at ICC should have realised that the communication between the players and the boards was lacking in many parts of the world,” said Gray.

“May be we could have done more to ensure the players were properly informed and their views taken into account,” added the former chairman of the Australian Cricket Board.

When the ICC entered into the $550 million sponsorship deal with the Global Cricket Corporation (GCC) for all ICC tournaments till 1997, the game’s world governing body gave Rupert Murdoch’s company several anti-ambush marketing assurances.

These assurances, which came into force with the consent of the 10 Test-playing countries, negated the players’ pre-existing individual contacts that clashed with the new legislation. Indian stars like Sachin Tendulkar were threatened the most by this.

There were some breaches of contract before and after the World Cup in February-March and, as a result, GCC has now demanded 50 million compensation.

It was, paradoxically, largely due to these breaches, which ICC accepted as a temporary compromise, that enabled the 2002 Champions Trophy and the 2003 World Cup to take place.

“It is a complex issue and the claims that have emanated will take time to find solutions,” said the 63-year-old Gray, who will now return to Melbourne to concentrate on his real estate and other business interests.

“However, if they are approached with a sense of reasonability by all parties, an answer could be arrived at in a relatively short time.”

Despite the ICC’s failure to implement it smoothly, the sponsorship deal, struck with help from Mani, is seen as one of biggest achievements of Gray’s tenure.

Match-fixing was the other big controversy that arose just before Gray took over from India’s Jagmohan Dalmiya in June 2000.

Gray acknowledges that match-fixing proved that corruption had seeped into what was once referred to as the gentleman’s game.

“Three years ago, the sport was on its knees with corruption deeply ingrained in it and the administrators being unaware of the extent of the problem,” he admitted candidly.

“Thankfully, we can now say the measures introduced by ICC — of an independent Anti-Corruption & Security Unit, a Code of Conduct Commission and the education of players - have successfully dealt with the problem and the scourge of match-fixing has been suppressed,” he stressed.

The match-fixing controversy came to light after Delhi Police tapped conversations in April 2000 between then South African captain Hansie Cronje and New Delhi bookie Mukesh Gupta.

“Going forward, we must be over vigilant and prepared to devote time, energy and financial resources to make sure corruption does not again infiltrate the game,” Gray suggested.

“(Although) cricket has progressed immensely in the last three years, at times we have gone three steps forward but unfortunately two steps back,” he pointed out. “The sport is now in a position to go forward globally and compete with all international sports.”

Although the ICC has tried its best to be professional in its dealings under Gray and Dalmiya, the outgoing president wants more professional governance in the future.

“There is a greater need for the sport to be administered in a more strategic manner with professional management teams running the game at the centre and in all countries,” he said.—PPI