INDIAN police have asked Scotland Yard to help investigate whether matches held in England during the 1999 cricket World Cup were fixed by gambling syndicates.

The inquiry is the first suggestion that a scandal in which a number of leading international players were banned for accepting bribes reached British soil.

Hansie Cronje, the South African cricket captain, became one of the sport’s villains when, in April 2000, he admitted accepting bribes from gambling syndicates to help to fix matches and individual batting scores. He was banned for life and later died in a plane crash.

Delhi police have requested video footage of South Africa’s matches during the 1999 tournament and Cronje’s UK bank accounts and telephone records.

Cronje admitted accepting an £8,000 bribe to ensure that his team lost a one-day international against India in Nagpur in March 2000. His opening batsman, Herschelle Gibbs, later admitted that he had agreed to accept £8,000 in exchange for scoring 20 runs or less and was banned for six months.

Last week Gibbs — who is playing for his country again despite his disgrace — was formally questioned by Delhi police and was asked if he knew whether Cronje fixed the matches in Britain.

Gibbs told detectives he did not know but said that Cronje had lied when he told South Africa’s King commission into match fixing that he had never approached team-mates to throw a game for cash.

According to Ranjit Narayan, Delhi’s joint commissioner, Gibbs said Cronje had approached him to offer £8,000 if he scored no more than 20 runs in the one-day international in Nagpur, and that Cronje had called a team meeting to offer more than £100,000 if they lost a Test match in Bombay in 1996. According to Gibbs, the plan collapsed because players refused to go along with it.

Indian detectives have particular suspicions about South Africa’s match against India at Hove in 1999. South Africa won, but the police are sceptical about earpiece microphones and transmitters worn by Cronje and other players. Detectives believe they could have been used to fix the match.

In a letter to be sent via the Home Office, the police refer to the match as a “curious incident” and ask if International Cricket Council officials had raised the issue at the time.

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