Woolmer's book to include additional section on match-fixing

London, Apr 7 (UNI) A section on match-fixing will be added to the coaching manual slained Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer completed shortly before his death in order to bring more light into the Hansie Cronje affair, a British media report claimed.

Tim Noakes, the co-author of the manual, had behemently denied match-fixing being part of it, but now says that a South African scientist would examine the data of all the one-dayers South Africa played in the 1990s to try to establish how many matches were manipulated.

He said part of the reason to include the additional section in the book to be published in September was to shed new light on the Hansie Cronje match-fixing affair.

''A scientist, Thomas Gilfillan, is examining the data of all the one-day matches that South Africa played in the 1990s and beyond, when they were often captained by Hansie Cronje and coached by Woolmer, to try to establish how many were manipulated,'' Noakes was quoted as saying by The Times.

''We would have mentioned match-fixing if Bob and I had thought in the past there was a science about it,'' he added.

Woolmer was coach of South Africa for around five years from 1994 and the match-fixing scandal involving captain Hansie Cronje rocked world cricket a year after he demitted the job.

''I was worried at the time by a number of suspicious things, such as when spin bowlers were brought on early in an innings, '' Noakes, who was formerly the South Africa team doctor and now a Professor of Sports Science at Cape Town University, told the newspaper.

''I saw things going on in the World Cup semi-final between South Africa and Australia in 1999 that I could not understand and a five-match ODI series always seemed to finish 3-2.

''I was convinced Cronje was a genius at manipulation and a liar,'' he said in the report.

''Gilfillan believes that by examining the form of both sides, it is possible to predict the outcome of 70 per cent of matches and that in the remaining 30 per cent, the weaker side won.'' ''He is looking at events in these fixtures, such as bowling changes and patterns of scoring, which would arouse suspicion. Gilfillan will have a range of probabilities of matches fixed,'' he added.

Noakes said he had spent eight years working on the original manual but reiterated that Woolmer has not written anything about match-fixing in it.

The report claimed that Woolmer's wife, Gill, has given permission for the book to go ahead and money raised from it will go to the Bob Woolmer Trust. Noakes, South Africa batting great Barry Richards and former Proteas batsman Jonty Rhodes are the trustees.

Noakes said the book will now be published solely under Woolmer's name and the print-run on the book will be increased from the 5,000 copies planned earlier to 100,000.

A British publisher has made an offer to buy out the contract Woolmer signed with New Africa Publications, a smaller house, and sell the book in Pakistan and India.

The book will also include a chapter on wicket-keeping by Alan Knott, Woolmer's old friend cum Kent and England colleague.

He also dismissed reports of missing pages of the manuscript at the Pegasus Hotel in Kingston where Woolmer was found unconscious before being declared dead at a local hospital.

''Bob was editing the original 600 pages, of which he wrote 80 per cent, a week before he died and the page proofs arrived at the Pegasus Hotel in Kingston the day after his death. So they were not the manuscripts said to have been stolen from his room. I think that was a red herring,'' he said.

UNI