Fresh claims of spot-fixing hit international cricket in an Al Jazeera documentary released on Sunday, with the International Cricket Council again questioning the Qatar-based broadcaster’s refusal to share its raw footage.
A report on Al Jazeera website published on Sunday stated that the evidence it has gathered, from 2011 and 2012, points to a small group of England players allegedly carrying out spot-fixes in seven matches, Australia players in five matches, and Pakistan players in three, with players from other teams carrying out spot-fixes in one match.
The channel’s report further claimed that the matches in which these fixes were allegedly carried out included an England-India encounter at Lord’s, a South Africa-Australia match in Cape Town and several games during England’s series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates.
Spot-fixes refer to the practice of dishonestly determining the outcome of specific aspects of the game which may not determine the overall result, such as bowling no-balls on particular deliveries.
“The files suggest that the suspected fixes were usually carried out by batsmen who agreed to underperform,” said the report. “Some of the world’s most famous players were batting when the fixes allegedly occurred. Many of the matches appear to include multiple fixes, making a total of 26 fixes in the 15 matches.”
The channel claimed that its dossier includes photographs of Mumbai-born Dubai-based alleged match-fixer Aneel Munawar and his associates hovering near, and purportedly talking to, international cricket players such as Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Umar Akmal during the T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka in 2012. But the channel made it clear that there is no suggestion that these players were involved in any wrongdoing.
The ICC has been seeking footage of the sting carried out by the channel since it was first aired earlier this year. However, world cricket’s governing body claims to have received no cooperation from the channel.
“As with the first programme we have and will continue to ask for the cooperation of the broadcaster,” ICC Anti-Corruption General Manager Alex Marshall said in a statement. “We have made repeated efforts to engage with the broadcaster as it can play such a crucial part in the full and thorough investigation it has called for.”
He added, “We do welcome the commitment from the broadcaster to share the files with Interpol and, I hope, other law enforcement agencies who can act upon the information and support us in ridding the sport of these criminals.”
Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland said in a statement that the latest claims are “unsubstantiated and incorrect”, according to news.com.au. “Cricket Australia takes a zero-tolerance approach against anyone trying to compromise the integrity of the game, and to suggest anything otherwise is unsubstantiated and incorrect.”
The ICC has already started investigating these latest allegations, Marshall said, adding that the world cricket body will work with professional independent betting analysts. “As you would expect we will again take the contents of the programme and any allegations it may make seriously and will investigate fully,” he said.
“However, I must refute the assertion that cricket does not take the issue of corruption seriously, we have more resources than ever before working to rid our sport of corruption,” he added.
Al Jazeera had made a series of spot-fixing allegations in its first documentary entitled “Cricket’s Match-Fixers” earlier this year, involving unidentified current and former players. The channel had claimed to have busted a pitch-fixing racket in Sri Lanka, where the track for two Test matches in the last couple of years were altered at the behest of betters.
With inputs from PTI