Five international cricket captains approached by bookies last year: ICC

 

The International Cricket Council (ICC) revealed on Monday, that five international cricket captains have been approached by bookies in the last year.

Speaking at an event in Dubai, Alex Marshall the head of ICC’s anti-corruption unit confirmed that, as many as five international captains have been approached for spot-fixing over the last 12 months; four of them from Full Member countries, ESPNcricinfo reported.

Out of all captains that have been approached, Pakistan cricket captain Sarfraz Ahmed is the only one to have publicly stated that he was approached by a bookie during the series against Sri Lanka last year. 

"There have been 32 investigations in the last 12 months, eight involve players as suspects," Marshall said.

He further added, "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."

Moreover, Marshall said, “Corruptors love captains. They look for intermediaries. They look for weak links.”

Speaking about where the bookies are most likely to be from, he said, most, if not all, bookies were Indians.

Cricket chiefs vigilant over T20 corruption risks

IPL was hit by a spot-fixing scandal in 2013 which resulted in two-year bans on two of its franchise teams

“That does not mean they operate out of India. They are all over the world. And they love T20 cricket since it is easiest for them to spot-fix little periods of the game.”

Earlier, ICC chief executive Dave Ricardson had said, "T20 matches have increased the number of fans, has attracted new fans and with more people following the game there is a bigger risk that there could be efforts to corrupt those matches."

"There is an indirect relationship between the T20 matches and the increased risk. Our priority is to increase the fans so if we have to work harder then we are ready for that," he added.