MATCH REPORTS
STAT SHEET
DIARY
HOT LINKS
OTHER SPORTS
SLIDE SHOW
BOOKS & THINGS
PEOPLE
DEAR REDIFF

We were worried about reprisals from Indian, Pakistani gangsters: Warne

Shane Warne has repeated his allegation that Pakistan's Salim Malik tried to bribe him and claims corruption might still exist in Pakistan cricket.

Warne, who released his autobiography My Own Story on Wednesday, said he was often suspicious when he watched Pakistan play. "Playing against the Pakistanis or watching their scores from overseas in the papers is now a strange experience,'' the Australian legspinner wrote.

"They are such a talented team that whenever they collapse for a low score or bowl badly and are beaten, you cannot help wondering about what might be going on behind the scenes. Hopefully nothing, but it is difficult not to wonder sometimes,'' he added.

Warne and teammates Tim May and Mark Waugh alleged that Malik offered them bribes to not win the first Test in the 1994 series in Karachi.

"He kept telling me that Pakistan could not lose. When I asked him what he meant, he said again,'you don't understand, we cannot lose,' " Warne wrote.

"I told him Australia was going to go out the next day and beat Pakistan. 'No you don't understand. We cannot lose. I am saying to you, you and Tim May are the two key bowlers tomorrow. There will be $ 200,000 cash in your room in half an hour if you don't bowl well tomorrow. Bowl outside off-stump and it will be a draw,' '' Warne quoted Malik as saying.

He said the offer was rejected and Pakistan went on to win the Test by one wicket.

The Australian allegations were never proven and an inquiry held in Pakistan cleared the Pakistani players of wrongdoing when the Australians refused to take part in the inquiry.

"A Pakistani judge would say his report ended the matter and in a way it did because nothing further has happened,'' Warne wrote. "But that judge also called Mark, Tim and myself liars for making the accusations. Why would anyone make such serious allegations knowing they were false? Inventing something like that would cause more trouble for us than for the accused.''

Warne said the Australians would have given evidence elsewhere, "but were worried about possible reprisals from Indian or Pakistani gangsters.''

"The whole betting scene in India and Pakistan is illegal so the people running the betting are basically gangsters. Not the sort of people to trust or to play around with,'' Wrne wrote. "Who knows what might have happened to us had we gone over for the inquiry? If the International Cricket Council had launched an inquiry in London we would have gone, but not to Pakistan.''

Warne said, "the bottom line in this affair is that you cannot prove anything. I suppose eventually the whole truth will come out although it could take years. The facts will emerge one day and everyone will know we were telling the truth. It could be 10 years after the event or 20 or 30, but we will eventually be vindicated.''

UNI