Alviro wants to ‘clear his name’

Johannesburg - In accepting the charges by Cricket SA (CSA) for several breaches of its anticorruption code for personnel, former Proteas player Alviro Petersen said he welcomed the opportunity to clear his name at the upcoming tribunal.

Petersen – whose charges include contriving to fix matches; seeking to accept a bribe; failing to disclose the full details to the anticorruption official; and obstructing or delaying the investigation by concealing, tampering or destroying information relevant to the investigation – denied the accusations through a statement by his lawyers, Robin Twaddle and Associates.

“The charges relate to events that took place between the time of Alviro’s reporting his knowledge of the corruption scandal and Gulam Bodi being charged by the CSA,” read the statement.

In the document, Petersen claims he was only playing along with the people involved in the scandal “so as not to alert them to the fact that an investigation was under way”.

Petersen, who at one stage was seen as a whistle-blower in an investigation that got Bodi, Thami Tsolekile, Ethy Mbhalati, Pumelela Matshikwe and Jean Symes banned from the game, said he knew as early as July that he was also regarded as a suspect by CSA, and said he was surprised because he felt he had co-operated fully with the investigation.