Basseterre, March 23:

South Africa World Cup team manager Ghoolam Rajah revealed on Friday that one of his players was approached by bookmakers during their tour of India two years ago.

“We did have one incident in India two years ago. Nothing happened other than that one phone call,” said Rajah, who refused to name the player other than saying he was not part of the World Cup squad here in the Caribbean. South Africa drew a five-match series 2-2 with one match rained off in late 2005. Johan Botha, Albie Morkel and Justin Ontong were the others who were on that tour, but are not part of the current squad.

“We passed the information to the ICC Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) and they assured us that they would handle it,” said Rajah. “The players are trained to phone as soon as they’ve been approached, and we’ve trained them not to get into any discussions with these people, only to take their phone details and pass them onto the authorities,” said Rajah.

“In the past they were innocent questions. It was just “what is the team tomorrow?” In the past we would easily say, “Joe Soap is not playing. No longer, now we don’t announce whether the team is picked or not.”

“That is the protocol. If a player is approached, he has to let us know immediately. We have a system. Police are trained to look out for people in the foyers of hotels, who don’t necessarily belong there, but look suspicious.”

Raja said his players are more cautious in dealing with strangers. “There’s a lot more awareness now than there was five years ago. The players are aware that there are people out there who are interested in finding out things we know, and the players are more cautious.”