LONDON, (Reuters) – Former top Pakistan cricketer Danish Kaneria has been named in court as a go-between in a spot-fixing scandal which led to former English county player Mervyn Westfield being jailed for four months yesterday. Bowler Westfield, 23, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to being paid 6,000 pounds ($9,400) to give away a set number of runs in the first over of a match between his Essex side and Durham in September 2009. He will serve half his term in prison.
The London court heard that Westfield’s Essex team mate Kaneria told him that a friend would pay him to cheat, Britain’s Press Association reported. Mark Milliken-Smith, lawyer for Westfield, told the court: “It is clear, we submit, that Kaneria and his associates targeted Westfield.
“Westfield was on the verge of the squad, more susceptible for that reason; less likely perhaps to be able to say no to the club’s international star, his future with the club uncertain.” Milliken-Smith told the court that other Essex players heard Kaneria talking about spot-fixing but a “blind eye” was turned.
Legbreak bowler Kaneria, who played 61 tests and 18 one-day internationals for Pakistan between 2000 and 2010, was arrested in connection with the case but later released without charge.
In November, a British court jailed three Pakistani players – Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir – for fixing parts of a test in England in 2010.
The Westfield case has raised fresh concerns about connections between cricket and illegal gambling circles on the Indian sub-continent. Westfield – who was playing in one of his first televised matches – has received an interim suspension from all cricket pending a disciplinary hearing, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said in a statement.
He is the first Englishman to be found guilty of spot-fixing.
“While the ICC takes no pleasure from anyone being sent to jail, it is a decision of the court which we support and I believe would act as a deterrent to anyone who is tempted to sully the good name of cricket,” International Cricket Council chief executive Haroon Lorgat said. “The ICC operates a zero-tolerance approach to corruption and will use everything within its power to ensure that any corrupt activity within the game is comprehensively investigated and, where possible, robustly prosecuted.” ($1 = 0.6350 British pounds)
