Interpol Summoned in Skerritt Hotel Brouhaha

Police in Sri Lanka have turned to Paris-based Interpol for assistance in an investigation into match fixing during the just concluded ICC Champions Trophy tournament.

The move followed the discovery that two women who were entertained by West Indies cricket team manager Ricky Skerritt had forged identity papers. A third woman had produced an Australian driving licence and the authorities here wanted to track down her background details, a police spokesman was widely quoted as saying.

"With the discovery of the forged papers carried by the women we are now expanding the inquiry to find out if they were involved in match fixing," the spokesman. He said the police were not pointing fingers at any particular team or players.

However, the procedures laid out for the tournament required them to rule out the involvement of the three women found in Skerritt's room and that of the West Indies computer operator Garfield Smith in match fixing.

Police suspected that bookmakers had frequented the team hotel and prostitutes may have been used to make contact with the visiting players.

The International Cricket Council used the Champions Trophy tournament as a dress rehearsal to eliminate or at least minimise match fixing during next year's World Cup tournament in South Africa.