Former South Africa coach Bob Woolmer feels the fresh match-fixing investigations into his team at the 1999 World Cup will prove a "waste of time".
LONDON: Former South Africa coach Bob Woolmer feels the fresh match-fixing investigations into his team at the 1999 World Cup will prove a "waste of time".
The Delhi police have requested Scotland Yard to make available video footage of South Africa's matches, including the one in which they lost to Zimbabwe, during the 1999 tournament after interrogating Herschelle Gibbs last week.
Detectives have also been asked to consider a match against India in which then captain Hansie Cronje wore an earpiece on tech-savvy Woolmer's suggestion.
"I say that it is bizarre to raise this again because the earpieces were used in that match at Hove for an hour and 10 minutes, before we were instructed not to do so by the match referee," Woolmer, currently the Pakistan team's coach, wrote in 'The Times' on Tuesday.
"The system was used to relay cricketing know-how and nothing other than that," he said.
"Although Cronje is long dead, Donald has retired and I am no longer involved with South African cricket, everyone in the game would wish to support (Delhi Police Commissioner) K K Paul, the detective who raised the alarm about Cronje in 2000, and his investigating unit in attempting to unravel betting within the game.
"But if they persist in examining that match and our defeat by Zimbabwe at Chelmsford later in that World Cup, they will reach a dead end and only waste their time," he said.
Woolmer also said South Africa's loss to Zimbabawe in 1999 was not a surprise. "Zimbabwe were not the cricketing underdogs they are now. In fact, I thought they were quite capable of beating any country in the tournament. There was no question of any betting on the match or involvement with bookies that I knew about," he said.
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