Marlon Samuels - file

NAGPUR, India (CMC):

An International Cricket Council (ICC) team comprising members of their Anti-Corruption Unit arrived here yesterday to begin investigations into Marlon Samuels' alleged involvement with Indian bookmaker Mukesh Kochar.

Indian police have accused the 26-year-old West Indies batsman of leaking team information to Kochar, during several telephone conversations ahead of a one-day international between India and West Indies last month.

"The team, which arrived here last night, was holding discussions with Nagpur Police to extract more details and all possible angles, but will confine itself to (the) interest of cricket," Brian Murgatroyd, the ICC's media manager, said yesterday.

"All team members are experienced investigators having worked with the Scotland Yard for 30 years previously and will leave no stone unturned in the investigation."

The ICC team, headed by the Anti-Corruption Unit's regional security manager N.S. Virk, is expected to interview staff at the hotel where Samuels and the West Indies team stayed during their time in the city.

No other West Indies player has been named in the scandal.

Murgatroyd said the ICC would seek to ascertain if there had been any violation of the ICC code of conduct which prohibits players and officials from providing bookmakers with information regarding matches.

"No time frame has been fixed by the ICC to complete the probe," Murgatroyd said.

The ICC probe comes after it received reports from Indian police and the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

Samuels has denied the allegations and the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has given the player its full backing.

SERARATE REPORT

In a separate report, Murgatroyd said: "We are trying to establish what information they (police) have. They have been very helpful."

The ICC team, which includes Jeffrey Rees, chief investigator of the anti-corruption unit, would end their work in Nagpur in two days, he said.

Although Nagpur police chief S.P.S. Yadav said they had no proof of any illegal monetary transaction between Samuels and Kochar, the issue has led to concerns of match-fixing.

Corruption rocked the game in 2000 after several top players were named in an Indian federal police investigation.

Early that year, Delhi police broke a match-fixing scandal that led to a life ban from cricket for the late Hansie Cronje, then South Africa skipper.

ICC officials say the latest incident showed the need to be on guard about corruption, particularly in the build-up to the World Cup to be played in the West Indies in March and April.

The investigation report would go to ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed and its anti-corruption unit head Paul Condon.

If action was required, it would then be referred to the national board.

The West Indian board has said it will investigate the issue once it receives details from the ICC.