Boje can’t leave India before questioning: police

NEW DELHI—South African bowler Nicky Boje will not be able to leave India without assisting police inquiries into a major match-fixing scandal in 2000, officials said Thursday.
“We want Boje to join the investigations and although a date has not been set for him to come, he will be asked to assist us before he leaves India,” police spokesman Rajan Bhagat told reporters
The New Delhi police issued a summons Wednesday ordering the left-arm spinner to answer questions in the capital. Bhagat said the seven-year-old case, which led to a life ban for late South African skipper Hansie Cronje, was still under investigation in India.
Boje and teammate Herschelle Gibbs were found guilty of being part of their skipper’s conspiracy in a public enquiry held in South Africa. They were fined and banned for six months.
Boje retired from international cricket last year but is currently playing in the rebel Indian Cricket League until December 16 outside the northern city of Chandigarh.
“We will ensure that he makes himself available to us so that we can continue from where we left off in October last year,” said a senior officer from New Delhi crime branch, which exposed the biggest betting scandal to hit cricket.
Gibbs was questioned by detectives when the batsman flew to India for the Champions Trophy in October 2006. The Indian Express on Thursday said Gibbs had claimed that not only Boje, but South Africans Pieter Strydom and Derek Crooks were also involved in the conspiracy.
“He (Gibbs) had also claimed that Cronje had twice offered him money,” the daily said. Spokesman Bhagat declined to comment on the report.
Boje earlier skipped two tours of India after failing to obtain iron-clad assurances that he would not be detained by police.
Delhi police say they recorded Cronje’s telephone conversations with bookies in India in which the former skipper struck deals to throw one-day matches.
Ahead of a one-day match in the Indian city of Kochi on March 9, 2000, police say Cronje agreed with a London-based bookmaker that Gibbs would score less than 20 runs and the team would lose on a total of under 250 runs. Gibbs in fact scored 111 out of 301 although South Africa still lost by three wickets.—Agencies