A FORMER Bermuda Attorney General has cleared West Indies cricket star Brian Lara of match-fixing allegations, "as far as we're concerned", the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) said last night.

A report organised by Sir Paul Condon, director of the International Cricket Council's (ICC) Anti-Corruption Unit in London, fingered cricket stars from several countries including Lara, the world's No. 1 rated Test batsman, who was accused of playing badly for the West Indies in 1994. He was the only West indian cited.

Former Attorney General Elliott Mottley - who left Bermuda soon after the botched Rebecca Middleton murder case - was appointed to look into allegations that Lara took $40,000 to underperform in two one-day Internationals in India in 1994.

Mr. Mottley, a Barbadian QC, had come under criticism from the WICB for dragging his feet.

"There is no case," Michael Seepersaud, the WICB's Cricket Development Officer, told the Mid-Ocean News last night. "That is as far as I know. This happened before I joined the board. The ICC appointed Condon and we appointed Queen's Counsel Elliott Mottley."

He said the WICB had had no evidence of misconduct of Lara from the ICC.

"We have had no confirmation on any of the reports," said Mr. Seepersaud. "We did ask Mr. Mottley why he was taking so long to look at the ICC report. We were told there were a number of matters that needed clarity when he made a decision to make sure there would be no ambiguity."

Mr. Seepersaud said as far as his information went, nothing had come of the allegations against the man.

But Mr. Seepersaud said there hadnot been an official ruling by the WICB yet.

"Nothing has come out of the investigations as far as we are concerned," Mr. Seepersaud said. "Mottley took his time, but we have had his report back and nothing has come out to indicate that these charges were true. We feel the matter is over unless the ICC comes up with any credible evidence."

Mr. Seepersaud said he was acting in the absence of the WICB chief executive officer.

"For all intents and purposes we are concluding the charges are unfounded and we hope Mr. Lara can get on with his cricketing life," he said. Lara is currently recovering from injury.

However, an ICC spokesman said as far as the Council was concerned the matter was not over.

"From what I understand, Elliott Mottley has yet to file a report with the West Indies Cricket Board," Chris Nockles of the ICC said.

Mr. Nockles said at the very least the ICC did not yet have a final report on the matter from Mr. Mottley.

Pat Rousseau, a former WICB president, called the accusations against Lara "grossly unfair". The allegations were made by Indian bookmaker Mukesh Gupta.

"We're still in an area where there is a lot of talk and very little evidence," Mr. Rousseau told Caribbean newspapers when the controversy began in the spring of 2001. "This is grossly unfair to people involved."

Other cricket stars accused of corruption included Alec Stewart of England, Mark Waugh of Australia, Martin Crowe of New Zealand and Aravinda DeSilva and Arjuna Ranatunga of Sri Lanka.

Several of players mentioned in the report have been severely disciplined by their home cricket boards.