Afghanistan team officially launches complaint regarding Shahzad
Debasis Sen, Dubai: The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Monday revealed at least 5 captains were approached by the bookies in the last one year. In a hurriedly called press conference arranged at the ICC Headquarters, following the incident involving Mohammad Shahzad. The Afghanistan wicketkeeper has reported a spot-fixing approach for the upcoming Afghan Premier T20 League to be held in Sharjah from October 5-23.
Shahzad, who is currently part of the team playing in Asia Cup, promptly reported the approach to the team management before the matter was raised with the ICC’s anti-corruption unit.
The ICC Anti Corruption Unit (ACU) General Manager revealed that at least five cricketers (four among them are from test playing nations) were approached by suspicious individuals during the last one year. There have been as many as 32 investigations over the last 12 months in which 6 players were also involved as suspects along with five administrators.
“There have been 32 investigations 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,” said Marshall.
Marshall explained how they go about their job amid the ever-increasing risk of corruption in the game.
“We try to link up with the intelligence. We look at what we know about this event, are we providing anti-corruption cover, are we already there or is it being provided by another party? Are there any other strands of intelligence we have about that tournament. Is there anything about financial backers or the people surrounding the tournament are suspicious?
There has also been three media sting operation over the past one year and ICC is investigating all the footages from the relevant channels. The global cricket body has also launched an appeal to find the one remaining suspected match-fixer from a recent documentary. The appeal is part of an extensive investigation by the ICC Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) and the alleged fixer, known as Aneel Munawar, remains unidentified. The programme-makers have indicated that this man will now be central to a second documentary.
General Manager ICC ACU Alex Marshall said: “We have identified every other person in the original documentary and have spoken to a number of them in connection with match-fixing, including those who are not deemed to be participants under our Anti-Corruption Code. Meanwhile, the governing body of world cricket has also launched an app called ICC Integrity where anyone finding anything suspicious can report by logging on to the app.