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Give India credit, SA told

South Africa should thank India for exposing corruption in South African cricket, a representative of the Indian High Commission said as the second week of the King Commission into match-fixing got under way in Cape Town on Monday.

Manjeev Puri told the Cape Times newspaper that acknowledging India's role would be "the decent thing to do."

Puri said when Indian police had first announced that they were laying charges against Hansie Cronje and three teammates, "There was a rush to make comments, mostly uninformed and without basis, about India and its police."

He said it would be appropriate, considering the long-standing relations between the two countries, if the South African government and cricket officials acknowledged that India had exposed the "Pandora's box".

Puris comments were published Monday on the fourth morning of an inquiry which has already yielded sensational evidence, with South African players Herschelle Gibbs and Henry Williams admitting they had agreed to take bribes from Cronje to play badly in a one-day international in Nagpur, India, on March 19.

Ali Bacher, managing director of the United Cricket Board of South Africa (UCB), was due to give evidence Monday.

Bacher caused controversy when he said he knew of match-fixing in international cricket, including World Cup matches.

He has hinted he will reveal his sources in his testimony.