LONDON, NOVEMBER 3: The chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), Lord MacLaurin, on Friday said that Alec Stewart would have been suspended from England's tour of Pakistan for being named in the CBI report on match-fixing, had he not co-operated with investigations into alleged corruption.Stewart has strongly denied allegations that he took money from a bookmaker in return for information on England's tour to the sub-continent seven years ago.MacLaurin said that given Stewart's assistance with the ECB's inquiries he saw no reason to suspend him.``If Alec Stewart had not co-operated with us fully on Wednesday when we had a very long conference call with him, my Board and I would have suspended him,'' MacLaurin told BBC Radio.``As soon as we contacted Alec he made his declarations to us quite clearly and therefore we had no reason at all to ask him to go home.''But he added: ``If there is any suspicion against any of our England players and they fail to come and talk to me or any or my colleagues about it, they will be suspended.''MacLaurin reacted after being accused of hypocrisy after he was earlier reported to have said that a number of Pakistan players suspected of taking payments should be suspended. But he insisted his comments had been misinterpreted, saying he only meant players who refused to co-operate with any official inquiry, and regretted his words may have damaged relations between England and Pakistan.``I am very sad about that because I know the Pakistan administrators very well indeed,'' said MacLaurin.English media reported that Stewart has declined to give a categorical ``yes'' when asked if he was prepared to undergo a lie-detector test. Sometimes his answers were spontaneous and emotional as when he described the last two days as the hardest in his life. Equally, the line that hewould do all in his power to assist Condon appeared over-rehearsed.``I have not a clue why my name is in there,'' Stewart told journalists in Rawalpindi. ``I was shocked when I got a phone call telling me I was named and I have been in a state of shock since then,'' The Times quoted him as saying.Speaking generally, Stewart admitted that he might have unwittingly given information over the telephone, for example to somebody pretending to be a journalist. ``I'm disappointed, to put it politely, that my name is in this in report. I cannot do any more than caterogically deny the allegations. Nobody has ever offered me any money or any presents for any information whatsoever. He said he would be ``as cooperative as possible'' if asked by the CBI to go to Delhi to be interviewed.Meanwhile, in New Delhi, the International Cricket Council (ICC) anti-corruption chief Sir Paul Condon arrived on Friday to probe into allegations of Stewart's role.Talking to newsmen, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president AC Muthiah said that the British detective was already in touch with Indian Board officials including BCCI Commisioner K Madhavan, who has been entrusted with the task of conducting an internal inquiry following the CBI findings.Muthiah said investigating officers of all the cricketplaying countries will meet in London in December ``to study how to uniformly approach and curb such problems (match-fixing).''A team of British detectives flew in here to probe into allegations that Stewart was paid 5,000 pounds to provide match information to an Indian bookmaker.Aravinda de Silva shockedCOLOMBO: Sri Lankan batsman Aravinda de Silva on Friday said he was approached by several `persons' in the past offering money during tours to India and other countries but he declined the offers and on each such occasion informed the tour managers about them.De Silva was quoted in the state run Daily News as saying that he was shocked to note that he has been linked to match-fixing.``If I was offered any bribe to fix matches I have brought it to the notice of the relevant authorities,'' he said.New Zealand inquiryWELLINGTON: New Zealand cricket board said it would set up an independent inquiry into the corruption allegations.The report named New Zealand's Martin Crowe, among cricketers accused of having links of one sort or another with bookmakers. ``While the report I've seen so far is incomplete, I have seen the sections which relate to Martin Crowe,'' New Zealand cricket chief executive Christopher Doig said in a statement.``Martin had adamantly refuted the unsubstantiated allegations and has agreed to cooperate with New Zealand cricket to inquire fully into the matter,'' he said.
