Dubai: International Cricket Council (ICC) had launched 32 investigations in the last 12 months, with eight involving players as suspects, in their efforts to keep the game clean. Alex Marshall, General Manager of ICC Anti Corruption Unit, released the figures during his speech on the Media Day at the ICC Headquarters in Dubai on Monday.
Dave Richardson, CEO of the ICC, Geoff Allardice, General Manager Cricket Operations, and Chris Tetley, Head of ICC events, and Marshall spoke at a well-attended briefing.
After Richardson revealed that the game is now played in the true spirit of cricket, giving the example of the standing ovation from the fans and Indian team for England’s Alastair Cook while he retired from the game after his last match at The Oval.
“There have been 32 investigations launched in the last 12 months, eight involve players as suspects. Five of them involve administrators or non-playing personnel. Three of these individuals have been charged. Five internationals captains have also reported receiving approaches to spot-fix,” Marshall said.
“Most of the investigations start out with someone within the game start out with something that they feel is suspicious. Some of them involve players or former players, staff or management roles. Fourteen investigations have been against people who are out of the cricket family, people who we are trying to get in at.”
Marshall pointed out that the corruptors love captains. “Corruptors love captains. We have had five captains approached in the last 12 months. Think back in history to some of the most famous corruption cases in cricket and you’ll know that the corruptors chase captains because obviously the captain gets to control bowling changes, the approach, fielding changes, etc,” he said.
Marshall said they also want to influence the game and they are looking at various means to influence the players. “The corruptors love the explosion of T20 tournaments. They have suddenly given them a host of new opportunities to try and influence these events. They will try and get into the franchises; they will try and get the financial backing; they will try and gain influence over the T20 league.”
Marshall also revealed how a tournament in Ajman was designed by them to fix the result. “We’ve seen examples of corruptors create an entire event only for the corruption. Our approach of trying to make cricket resistant includes trying to educate people in cricket. We would like to work on prevention, so making cricket resistant to corruption is about preventing it happening in the first place.”
