Boje and Gibbs are senior members of South Africa's one-day team

They are still wanted for questioning about match-fixing allegations which surfaced after a tour to India in 2000.

South Africa were seeking an assurance that police would not seek to detain and question the pair.

But an Indian sports ministry official said: "The law of the land will take its own course."

Gibbs, Boje, then skipper Hansie Cronje and team-mate Piet Strydom were charged with "cheating, fraud and criminal conspiracy relating to match fixing and betting" on the basis of taped telephone conversations between Cronje and a bookmaker.

He later confessed to have been involved with illegal bookmakers and was banned for life from the game, but died in an plane crash in 2002.

Boje has always denied any involvement in the affair, but Gibbs acknowledged accepting �11,180 to score fewer than 20 runs against India in a limited-overs international.

He subsequently scored 74, suggesting he had "forgotten" about his deal but was suspended for six months from cricket and was fined.

Despite that, police in Delhi have never close the case and fears of arrest prompted the pair to pull out of South Africa's last tour to India at the end of 2004.

And barring a change of mind by the Indian authorities, it now seems certain they will not be involved in the forthcoming one-day series.

Indian cricket, meanwhile, has been rocked by fresh match-fixing allegations concerning a recent one-day series in Zimbabwe.

The Times of India claims in the lead story of Wednesday's edition that Anti-Corruption investigators from the International Cricket Council visited Delhi last week to look into the matter.

The newspaper says three members of the Indian team are under scrutiny.

New Zealand, who beat India by four wickets in the final, have issued a statement to insist that none of its players are involved in corruption.

"All we have seen regarding speculation surrounding the tri-series is reports from Indian newspapers.

"I have very strong trust in the integrity of our players and am more than confident there is no basis to any suggestions they were involved."

The ICC took the highly unusual step of dismissing the media speculation regarding the integrity of the series as totally inaccurate and without foundation.

ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed said in light of the wildly inaccurate media reports in the Indian media it was necessary to take this step to address the unfounded speculation.

"We do not normally comment on the operational activities of the ICC Anti-Corruption and Security Unit but in light of the volume of utterly unfounded reports relating to the recent tri-series in Zimbabwe it is important to make it clear that there is no investigation being undertaken into this series," said Mr Speed.