March 27, 2007	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 7, 1428

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LONDON, March 26: Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif on Monday criticised the International Cricket Council's Anti-Corruption Unit for its failure in checking the corrupt practices in international cricket, terming it "highly unsuccessful".

Lashing out at the body, Latif said he is, perhaps, the only person to have given the ACU any real information about potential match-fixing worries. "I was willing to work with the ACU and had a detailed meeting with them in London in 2003. I put my life at stake and shared important facts with the ACU, but I was not taken seriously."

Rashid’s Test career suffered when he made corruption claims against team-mates during the mid-90s. He gave evidence to the Qayyum Commission in 2000, one of two judicial inquiries conducted into allegations of corruption against Pakistan players. That led to Salim Malik and Ata-ur-Rehman receiving life bans.

Cricket was brought to its knees by match-fixing in 2000 when the then South African captain Hansie Cronje admitted taking money to lose matches on purpose. That case spawned a number of other investigations, and the ICC set up the ACU in June of that year.

Its chairman is Lord Condon, the one-time Metropolitan Police Commissioner. But since it was set up the only player to be publicly identified and punished has been Kenya's Maurice Odumbe.

"I somehow felt the ACU could not do anything significant about this grave issue of match-fixing,” added Latif, a former wicketkeeper-batsman of fine calibre. "In my opinion the ACU has to strengthen its information network. They might not have anything more in their database than what I provided them.”

"The ACU should work in close co-ordination with the intelligence agencies in cricket-playing nations, for example India's Central Bureau of Investigation has done a fair job to curb betting. All in all the ACU has been highly unsuccessful."

The England and Wales Cricket Board chairman David Morgan defended the ACU. "I sit at ICC and hear annual reports from Lord Condon and it is very clear the Anti-Corruption and Security Unit is ever vigilant, so are member boards."

"Cricket has come a long way in tackling the evils of corruption. It has had to grow up quickly but it can never relax and grow complacent. If it does the problem will inevitably return." - Agencies