The International Cricket Council (ICC) has concluded an investigation on ‘Cricket’s Match Fixers’ broadcast by Al Jazeera on 27 May 2018. The Al Jazeera documentary had alleged incidents of spot-fixing in a Chennai match between England and India in December 2016 and the Australia-India test in Ranchi in March 2017.
The documentary also made allegations that the stadium manager at Galle in Sri Lanka may have doctored the pitch at the behest of fixers and suggested minor Twenty20 competitions had also been targeted. ICC has concluded an investigation into the documentary programme and decided that no charges will be bought under the ICC Anti-Corruption Code against any of the five Participants to the Code that featured in the programme due to insufficient credible and reliable evidence.
The media release explained that the investigation focused on three main areas: the claims made by the programme, the suspects who were part of it, and how the programme gathered evidence. To assess whether the passages of play highlighted in the programme were unusual in any way, the ICC engaged four independent betting and cricketing specialists to analyse the claims. All four concluded that the passages of play identified in the programme as being allegedly fixed were entirely predictable, and therefore implausible as a fix.
All five Participants to the Code that featured in the programme have been interviewed by the ICC Integrity Unit and there is insufficient evidence based on the normal thresholds applied through the Code to lay any charges.
ICC General Manager- Integrity, Alex Marshall said, “We welcome the reporting of alleged corrupt activity within cricket as there is no place for such conduct in our sport, but we also need to be satisfied there is sufficient evidence to sustain charges against Participants”
Marshall added that in case there is any new substantial evidence that comes to light the council will re-examine the case. At present, ICC is comfortable with the conclusion of the investigation and the thoroughness with which it was undertaken.