Bracken considering legal actionMELBOURNE — Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland has said that claims made in a London court over Australian match-fixing are “outlandish and made by a person of dubious repute.” On Monday, the player agent at the center of the Pakistan spot-fixing allegations, Mazhar Majeed, named in recordings played in court several high-profile ex-Pakistan internationals as well as unnamed Australians as being involved in corruption. Sutherland said Tuesday that “these sweeping statements unfairly malign Australian cricketers,” but if there was any evidence of wrongdoing, Australian officials would investigate. “These would appear to be baseless allegations,” Sutherland added, saying that he would have been made aware by the International Cricket Council if Australians were involved in any match-fixing. The recordings were made by the prosecution's chief witness Mazhar Mahmood, the undercover journalist who was working for the now-defunct British tabloid The News of the World. The recordings were played at London's Southwark crown court on the fourth day of the trial. Majeed accused Australian players of being the “biggest” match-fixers in world cricket, although he never backed his claim up with any evidence. Majeed told Mahmood that Australian players would fix “brackets,” a set period of a match on which gamblers bet, for example, on how many runs will be scored. “The Australians, they are the biggest, they have 10 brackets a game,” Majeed said on the tape played to the court. Majeed, according to The Australian newspaper, claimed he was an agent for Nathan Bracken and a friend of Ricky Ponting's manager. Ponting's manager James Henderson dismissed the allegation when contacted by the paper Tuesday. “I don't know the bloke,” Henderson said. Ponting's former manager Sam Halvorsen was equally dismissive of the claims. “Fanciful nonsense,” said. Bracken's manager, Rob Horton, vehemently denied Majeed ever acted for the player. “Nathan's never been involved with match fixing, it is all crap, this bloke doesn't represent Nathan, Nathan has never heard of him or met him, I have never heard of him or met him,” he said. Horton told the paper he was considering legal action. Sutherland said Tuesday that the ICC attends all international matches with its corruption unit and “there is nothing I have heard to suggest that there are Australian players who are of interest to them. “If there is any issue or there is any concern, we will investigate them, Sutherland added. “If we charge players and we find them guilty we will have no qualms about issuing a life sentence on players who are found guilty of match-fixing.” Australian Cricketers' Association chief executive Paul Marsh said Majeed was unreliable and his evidence should be considered in context.
