'Mafia behind Woolmer, Hansie's deaths' Rodney Hartman March 24 2007 at 11:43AM

Clive Rice, a former South African captain and a contemporary of Bob Woolmer during their playing and coaching days in England, has "absolutely no doubt" what happened on the 12th floor of the five-star Pegasus Hotel in Kingston, Jamaica, last Sunday night. Woolmer, he said, knew too much and ended up taking those secrets to the grave. His murder was the result of information he had on the mafia-style industry that makes billions of dollars from betting on international cricket matches. He was eliminated after Pakistan's shock World Cup defeat to lowly Ireland before he could blow the whistle, Rice believes. Darker side of international cricket "What is more," said Rice, "Bob knew a lot of what went on during the match fixing scandal in which Hansie Cronje was nailed. I found it odd that he was never called as a witness by the King Commission." It was that commission into match-fixing, chaired by retired Judge Edwin King, that sat in Cape Town in 2000 and which, according to Rice, was suddenly stopped once "Cronje had taken the fall". "There were a lot more people involved," said Rice, "but the commission fell short in exposing this. Strangely enough it (the commission) never asked how spread betting works." Woolmer and Rice were respectively the coaches of Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire when news of the match-fixing scandal first broke. "We were actually involved in a match in England at the time and Bob and I discussed it. "He told me a lot that never came out. "I'm not just talking about other players being involved, but officials too." Woolmer's violent end by strangulation has also reopened old wounds over Cronje's death in an air crash five years ago. Pilot error was blamed after the transport plane he regularly travelled in crashed into a mountainside near George in the southern Cape - but there are those who are adamant it happened rather differently. Rice is one of them. "I am convinced his death wasn't an accident, and I will continue to believe that until the day I die." Rice disclosed that he had acquired the rights for a tell-all book that Cronje was planning in the wake of the match-fixing scandal. "I went to see him six months before he died. He signed over the rights to me. Like Woolmer, he knew a lot more of what was going on. His so-called accident was just a lot cleverer than the one that killed Bob." Ironically, Woolmer was also working on a book that might have exposed the darker side of international cricket. Betting on the Indian subcontinent is outlawed but it goes on illegally underground on a massive scale. A senior member of the ICC's anti-corruption unit once revealed that $1-billion (R7,2-billion) changes hands during a single game involving Pakistan and India. Lesser games grossed at least $250-million on the day. It is tragically ironic that both Woolmer and Cronje, coach and captain of the South African team during its most successful era between 1994-99, were probably both victims of the sordid side of cricket. Although "pilot error" was the chief reason given by an inquest into the air crash that claimed Cronje's life, it was also established that the pilots had relied on a 29-year-old instrument-landing system at George Airport that was known to be faulty. This article was originally published on page 4 of Saturday Argus on March 24, 2007

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Blame game begins, Chappell may get the boot

New Delhi:

Indian team coach Greg Chappell's contract will not be renewed, sources in the Board for Control of Cricket in India have told CNN-IBN .

Board chief Sharad Pawar on Saturday said Chappell's contract was till the end of the World Cup and it would now be reviewed. “We had signed an agreement with the coach. We have to still decide our future course of action,” he said.

Pawar said this while commenting on India's defeat to Sri Lanka in a World Cup match in Port of Spain, Trinidad, on Friday. The defeat almost puts India out of the World Cup.

"Our team has disappointed me and the nation. The Indian Board is the only Board which provided maximum facilities to the players, expectations from the team were quite high," said Pawar.

Board Vice-President Rajiv Shukla said a meeting would be held to decide the “situation” after India's defeat. "We are disappointed with the performance of the entire team. I am not going to blame any single individual, the entire team's performance was very disappointing and so in order to fix responsibility, to review the whole situation, a BCCI meeting would be convened by the president," he said.

"We are shocked and astonished over the defeat of the Indian team against Sri Lanka. It was very pathetic performance, we can say," Shukla said.

Chappell to answer employers

In Port of Spain, Chappell told journalists the defeat was a "collective failure" and refused to take questions on whether he would continue as coach.

Just because Ireland has upset the cricket hierarchy, they now face demeaning commentary. Why, because Press have grown too used to the status qua that they cannot be bothered learning the Irish team names. Their 1 win and a draw to qualify for the supper 8's are now down to luck. No Irish man exists on the team. They are all Australian and South African players Flown over to Ireland for the millions offered in cricket salaries.

Let's have a reality check; there are only 12,000 registered cricket players in Ireland.
If an Australian or South African chooses to come here for 4 years, live and work and marry an Irish woman, he is more than entitled to play for Ireland.
You can only create so much luck. Winning is down to hard work and great team spirit and work ethic, something Ireland have in abundance. They have no world class individual players but promote why cricket is a team game to the shock of press who love their one man shows.

If cricket is to grow in Ireland try to promote the positives. True Ireland will probably not win another game. Bad press will not promote the game in Ireland. It may only add to the underdog spirit to beat another big team. Please embrace what's good in cricket to spread the game.