Bookies approached 5 captains for spot-fixing in past year: ICC

DUBAI: The spectre of spotfixing in cricket has appeared yet again, with the game’s governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), revealing on Monday that as many as five international captains have been approached by bookies over the past 12 months.

The ICC also said Afghanistan’s wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Shahzad had been approached during the ongoing Asia Cup with an offer to underperform in the Afghanistan Premier League T20 tournament, to be played in Sharjah in October.

ICC anti-corruption unit general manager Alex Marshall revealed that of the five international captains, four are from the ICC’s Full Member nations. “We can’t give out the names. But there have been five international captains who reported suspicious approaches,” Marshall said at the ICC headquarters on Monday.


Private T20 leagues greatest challenge for us: ACU chief
Marshall claimed that most, if not all, bookies were Indians. “That doesn’t mean they operate out of India. They are all over the world. And they love T20 cricket as it is easier for them to spot-fix little periods of the game,” Marshall said.

Afghanistan cricketer Shahzad, meanwhile, was approached by “some suspicious people” at the team hotel on Saturday evening. An official complaint has been lodged by the Afghanistan team management with the International Cricket Council (ICC).

An ICC official said, “The incident was more to do with the upcoming Afghanistan Premier League. No official complaint was made but the ICC ACU was alerted that Shahzad was uncomfortable with some people trying to approach him in the team hotel.”

According to Marshall, mushrooming private T20 leagues offer the greatest challenge for the ACU. In its annual report, the ICC claims to have done 32 investigations in the past year alone. Of these, 23 incidents were reported by players and match officials.

Eight incidents involved players as suspects, including four former players still facing investigation. Of the rest, 14 operations involve non-participants, or outsiders not connected to the game.

The ICC has now decided to review its minimum anti-corruption standards and make laws more stringent.

The world body is also having a relook at an upcoming T10 league in Dubai, which was initially recognized. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has raised reservations about the owners of the franchises in the league.

The ICC too has been promoting more T20 cricket, scrapping the ICC one-day Champions Trophy and replacing it with an extra World T20.

ICC CEO David Richardson said: “T20 cricket has attracted new fans. With more people following the game, the risk could be bigger as there could be more efforts to corrupt those matches. Our priority is to increase the number of fans and if it so happens that Alex has to work a little harder, then so be it.”

On his part, Marshall said, “My point was about the explosion of private T20 events including some of the private events designed for the whole purpose of corruption.

“They do think it’s an interesting format. We never launch an investigation because something looks odd on the field or we get a single anonymous report. We get quite a lot of single, anonymous reports. We start putting the pieces together and if there’s sufficient reason to think on reasonable grounds to start investigating this, then we take it on.”