Bookie had tried to lure Hollioake
''I will make you rich.'' This is what a self-proclaimed bookie told former England captain Adam Hollioake soon
after he landed in Sharjah to participate in a four-nation tournament in December 1997.
Hollioake, who captained the winning England team in the first
day-night tournament at the Sharjah stadium that season, said: ''I
could have inadvertently answered all the queries put to me by the
bookmaker.''
Hollioake, who is in Sharjah as the coach of the Hong Kong team
for the Asian Cricket Council championship, beginning later
this week, told Gulf News that more than the offer made by the
bookie, what surprised the former England skipper was how much
information the caller had on the team, their arrival and stay.
''We had hardly arrived half an hour when I received this call. Obviously
he (the caller) had the relevant information about our arrival time
in Dubai.''
Hollioake recalled that first the caller wanted some information
on the team. ''I told the person, I can't talk to him.''
The person called again within minutes but Hollioake repeated
that he could not talk to him. When the third call came from the
person, Hollioake advised him to go through the team manager or the
press officer.
''That is when the caller told me, 'I am not a
reporter, I am a bookie'."
Hollioake said when he told the caller he was not interested in talking to
him, the caller said, 'I will make you rich.'
Hollioake said: ''I just hung up after that. I was captaining the
side for the first time and I could have given out the information
without knowing who I was talking to.''
He said it is now imperative to teach players to avoid talking to anyone.
Hollioake asserted that former England captain Alec Stewart, who has been
named by the CBI in its report on match-fixing and betting, cannot be involved in any unsavoury act. ''It is all rubbish; Alec is a straight guy. I know he would never do any such
thing,'' he said.
''I don't know why people are listening to a bookie, an
untrustworthy man,'' he said, referring to the statement of Indian
bookie Mukesh Gupta.
Mail Cricket Editor
