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| October 11, 2006 | Wednesday | Ramazan 17, 1427 |
Indian police to quiz Gibbs tomorrow
NEW DELHI, Oct 10: South African opener Herschelle Gibbs will be questioned later this week by police in the Indian capital over a 2000 match-fixing scandal, police officials said on Tuesday.
“Gibbs will join our investigations on (Thursday) Oct 12,” said additional police commissioner Deependra Pathak, adding that the 32-year-old, who has played 79 Tests, would be “questioned” in New Delhi
Police sources said a team of detectives would question Gibbs in the presence of a lawyer who accompanied him to India for the Champions Trophy cricket tournament.
“The batsman will be grilled by a high-level team headed by Crime Branch joint police commissioner Ranjit Narayan on all the aspects” of the scandal, a senior police official said.
“If he gives satisfactory answers then the session will be over and he'll be let off,” the official said.
Gibbs had admitted accepting money from disgraced former captain Hansie Cronje to score fewer than 20 runs against India in a one-dayer during their 2000 March-April tour.
He subsequently scored 74 runs and said he had “forgotten” about the deal, but was suspended and fined.
New Delhi police prosecutor director Y.S. Yadav said since the case remained open only on file, Gibbs's possible detention by the police was remote.
Gibbs has previously refused to tour India after failing to obtain assurances he would not be detained.
Implicated in the same scandal was Cronje, who admitted involvement and was served with a life ban before dying in a plane crash in 2002.
South Africa, winners of the maiden Champions Trophy in 1998 in Bangladesh, are scheduled to play their first match against New Zealand in Mumbai on Oct 16.
The International Cricket Council in May said it would do everything possible to ensure Gibbs could tour India without fear of arrest in the match-fixing case.—AFP
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