Sporting Digest: Cricket

A former Pakistani national team manager, Intikhab Alam, yesterday told the judicial inquiry into match-fixing in Pakistan how he had asked his players to swear on the Koran that they would not offer or accept bribes. Intakhab managed the team during the 1994-95 season. The inquiry is due to resume on Saturday.

Sri Lanka is to become the latest country to introduce women umpires. "We will be training nearly 30 ladies to start with," KT Francis, a Sri Lankan member of the international umpires' panel, said. There are 450 registered male umpires in Sri Lanka, and women umpires will initially supervise domestic matches for women's teams, with the first group will begin training this weekend. An International Cricket Council spokesman in London said that women already umpire club cricket in several countries, but there are no women umpires at first-class level.