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Odumbe alleged to have met bookie four times

Martin Hawkins, one of the Anti-Corruption officers of the International Cricket Council, has alleged that Maurice Odumbe had made four trips to Mumbai before the World Cup last year to meet an Indian bookmaker

AAP
29-Jul-2004


Maurice Odumbe: the plot thickens © AFP
Martin Hawkins, one of the Anti-Corruption officers of the International Cricket Council, has alleged that Maurice Odumbe had made four trips to Mumbai before the World Cup last year to meet an Indian bookmaker. Hawkins was speaking at the ICC's tribunal at Nairobi into alleged the match-fixing allegations on Odumbe.
Hawkins, who gave evidence at the hearing, said that he had investigated Odumbe's telephone calls, travels and hotel accommodation between January and December 2002. He also said that he interviewed Odumbe in his hotel room in Johannesburg, during the World Cup, about his relationship with Jagdish Sodha, the bookie, and his trips to Mumbai.
"Odumbe said," according to Hawkins, "[that] he had been introduced to Sodha as someone he would do business of solar lighting with, when he retired from cricket. Sodha would also provide medicine for his mother who had hypertension. It was the year before the World Cup and it was unusual for a player to make four trips to Mumbai and be entertained by Sodha."
Hawkins added that his investigations had proved that the player had received money and had his accommodation in Mumbai paid for by his host.
Ishan Kapila, Odumbe's lawyer claimed that by giving detailed reports on Odumbe's girlfriends and other personal affairs, the ICC investigators had infringed on his client's private life . During his cross-examination, Kapila said, "The Code of Conduct is dramatically fraud[ulent] in the context."
Niranjan Singh Virk, another ICC investigator, told the inquiry that he had interviewed Sodha in 2000 when he was still working for the Central Bureau of Investigations in India and at the time, Sodha had confessed that he had been a bookmaker. However, he also said that Sodha had never been charged or convicted for the offence.
Odumbe is expected to give evidence in his defence on Friday.