Keeping bookies, cell phones at bay is their concern now

Keeping bookies, cell phones at bay is their concern now
ASSOCIATED PRESS

COLOMBO, JULY 4: At the end of the day, a Pakistan official tip toes to a security officer's small room in a Colombo hotel to check the phone log -- the telephone calls made or received by the Pakistani cricketers.

On another floor, the manager of the Sri Lankan team makes sure that his players don't carry cell phones.

In another corner, a South African consultant reads out the do's and dont's to the players from his country.

Life has changed for the cricketers after the outbreak of the match fixing scandal which led to the firing of Hansie Cronje as the South African captain.

Sleuths are seeking the help of the hotel staff to keep the bookies at bay. Keeping fans at bay is no longer their only concern.

"Now our main job is to keep the bookies away. We have posted people at elevator landings and they identify hotel guests. Others are not just allowed," said S Abahayasekara, chief security officer of Oberoi Hotel.

South Africa, Pakistan and host Sri Lanka are all set to participate in a triangular one-day tournament beginning Wednesday.

"I am very very strict and I am not going to allow even a fly to get near our boys," said Brig Mohammad Nasir, the manager of the Pakistani team, rejecting concerns that the bookies may reach his players.

Niel Perera, manager of the Sri Lankan team, keeps cellular phones away his players. "This is one of the measures we have taken to see that the name of the game is not tarnished any further, Dhamika Ranatunga, the chief executive of the Sri Lanka Cricket Board, told the Associated Press.

"We had a long talk with all the players and told them that they may be clean, but that does not stop the bookies from making the first move," Ranatunga said. "I am proud to say that our boys are absolutely clean."

Doug Russell, manager of the South African team who runs transport consultant agency back home, tell his players to remain alert and report any incident to him immediately.

"We have suffered enough by Cronje's case and we are determined to see that this is not repeated," Russel said.

But the fear of bookies lurks in the minds of the cricket lovers.

"Obviously there are those who will be skeptical of South African cricket and we will try to clear that suspicion by giving 120 per cent," South African captain Shaun Pollock told reporters in Colombo.

The current tournament is South Africa's first since Cronje plunged cricket into its worst-ever crisis by admitting he took close to dollars 100,000 in bribes from bookmakers.

Pollock, who succeeded Cronje, said the pressure on him was worse now than when he first took up the job.

"At first the allegations were about pitch and weather information, but now we are talking about match-fixing and that makes it all the more difficult," he said.

"No player in any team I lead will have anything to do with this controversy," said Pollock. His team has signed a declaration that they will not be involved in match-fixing.