Hong Kong chief rubbishes corruption reports

Dinesh Tandon, chairman of the Hong Kong cricket association, has rubbished the suspicions of corruption raised around the 2010 Hong Kong Sixes tournament. Heath Mills, the New Zealand players' association CEO, had confirmed the news that New Zealand players had reported a suspicious approach at the tournament, but Tandon was confident nothing untoward had happened.

We have been made aware by the ICC that an incident happened and we are investigating it further," Tandon told the South China Morning Post. "But I can assure you that there has been no instance of match-fixing or spot-fixing."

Members of the New Zealand side, which included Daryl Tuffey, Nathan McCullum and Scott Styris, dined with a man in Hong Kong who introduced himself as a Middle Eastern diamond dealer, but grew uncomfortable when he began offering them products. They reported the interaction to the team manager Steve Wilkins, who in turn informed NZC, and the players were subsequently interviewed by the ICC's anti-corruption unit.

"The Hong Kong Sixes aren't the usual bilateral series or an ICC event, these sorts of events that do take place that are festivals if you like," Mills had told ESPNcricinfo. "Obviously if there isn't an ICC anti-corruption official there to police it, a lot of the protocols aren't going to be followed."

But Tandon said, from their end, the tournament organisers had followed all necessary protocols. "We have strictly adhered to ICC guidelines on corruption and I'm confident nothing happened."