Dean Jones to name international cricketer involved in bribery

Jones will reveal to a new Australian Cricket Board inquiry the identity of the player who was with him when a bookmaker offered the Australian 50,000 US dollars for information about team changes and pitch conditions.

The cricketer is neither Sri Lankan or Australian, Jones told The Australian newspaper.

He would not comment on whether it was Indian allrounder Manoj Prabhakar, about whom allegations have been made but who has consistently denied links with cricket's murky underworld.

``It will be in my report,'' Jones said. ``If they want to release that I've got no problem. I have got nothing to hide.''

He said what happened on the tour had never been extensively covered.

``I'm not out to get anyone,'' he said. ``I just want to clear my name.''

The incident came more than two years before the game-shaking revelations that former Pakistan captain Salim Malik offered bribes to Shane Warne and Mark Waugh to play badly during the 1994 tour of Pakistan.

Warne and Waugh will give further evidence to a Pakistan judicial inquiry into bribery allegations in Melbourne next month after they admitted involvement with an illegal Indian bookmaker during the 1994 tour.

Jones said in 1992 noone had heard of match fixing or betting.

``Back then it was felt to be a laughing matter,'' he said. ``It all means a lot more today than it did then.''

The Australian Cricket Board Wednesday said an independent Australian inquiry into the effect of gambling on cricket would begin on January 12, although preliminary interviews will start on January 4.

The probe, to be headed by Queensland lawyer Rob O'Regan, will last for three weeks with the report made public at the end of February.

O'Regan said the inquiry would be held in private as that was the best way to achieve results.

The ACB made the move in light of the Jones revelations and after another Australian Test batsman, Ricky Ponting, dropped for the upcoming fourth Ashes Test against England, said last week a Sydney bookmaker offered him money a year ago for information about pitch conditions.

Two other former Test players, Australian Greg Matthews and New Zealander Danny Morrison, were also approached by bookmakers.

Former Australian Test great David Boon, who was on the 1992 tour with Jones, said he was prepared to attend the inquiry but didn't think he could add anything new.

``The only incident I know about was the one with Dean when he said he had the offer,'' Boon said. ``He asked Allan Border and myself about it and we said 'Don't touch it'. As far as I know, he knocked it back.''

Both Jones and Boon said they had no knowledge of any other Australian cricketers involved with bookmakers.

``I honestly think this (Waugh and Warne) might have been an isolated case, but unfortunately with all the other stuff going on it has become far bigger than it probably was,'' said Boon.