BCCI’s anti-corruption chief slams board over indifferent approach towards fighting graft

BCCI’s anti-corruption chief, Neeraj Kumar, has criticised the board for grossly neglecting the problem of corruption in cricket, stating that there has been “hardly any interest” in effectively fighting the menace, the Indian Express reported.

Kumar’s email was in response to BCCI’s chief executive officer Rahul Johri’s request for the Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU) head to apprise the Committee of Administrators about the recent scandal that emerged ahead of the third Ashes Test, two Indian bookmakers were found to be involved.

In the email, Kumar has claimed that the board has failed to provide adequate support to the ACSU, financially as well as personnel wise.

“Not even once can I recall a meeting in which you have chosen to discuss this issue. Not even once have I been asked what the magnitude of the problem is and what needs to be done,” Kumar wrote.

Kumar pointed out that over 900 matches have taken place during the domestic season, adding that it was physically impossible for his three-member team to impart Anti-Corruption Education Programmes (ACEP) to players before the matches.

“How is it expected that the ACSU, with a total strength of 3, including me, can cover them, or at least impart ACEP before these matches?” Kumar wrote.

Addressing the sting operation conducted by British newspaper The Sun where two bookmakers - Sobers Joban, a former Delhi junior cricketer, and Priyank Saxena - were found to have offered to sell the tabloid details of rigged periods of play in the Test in Perth, Kumar wrote that both persons were on the ACSU’s watch list and part of the list of people that cricketers are advised to stay away from as part of the ACEP.

In fact, Kumar also pointed out the CoA had to be formed as a consequence of the betting scandal that rocked the IPL in 2013.

“Ironically, the measures to be undertaken for preventing a repeat of such scandals seems to have been forgotten and lost sight of. We have to be woken up to this menace by a sting operation by a London-based tabloid when the signs are all there for us to see if we choose to,” wrote Kumar.