Hobart Match To Be Investigated

No sooner had the dust settled on England's 3 wicket victory over New Zealand last night, than the tapes and scorecards of the match were handed over to the ICC's match-fixing unit.

An ICC spokesman said:

Although we have received no direct accusations of match-fixing, the unusual nature of the result has set off a few alarm bells and we feel duty-bound to investigate further.

The match-fixing unit has been investigating suspicious results in the game since the Hansie Cronje affair blew up at the turn of the century.

The spokesman added:

There are a number of irregularities the ICC would like to investigate, but the main one we will be looking at is the outcome of the match. We hope to conclude this process as soon as possible, and will release our report as soon as it is available.

Before today's game, England had not won a cricket match since 1984.