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LONDON. — The International Cricket Council believe the game at the highest level is clean and corruption in cricket is no longer rife despite the fact that the corruptors have upgraded their operating system.
The world cricket governing body have clamped down on several high-profile cricketers, imposing bans on the likes of Heath Streak, Sanath Jayasuriya and Nuwan Zoysa.
Alex Marshall, the Anti-Corruption Unit general manager of the ICC, told the BBC the best way to stop corruption was by creating of robust intelligence-gathering and education system. “Absolutely not,” he said. “Corruption is not rife within cricket.”
He went on explain the point saying people who strive to corrupt the game are rife.
“We have a very clean game, particularly at the highest level,” he said.
”What is rife is, unfortunately, that the world contains people who always look to make large sums of money through illegal and corrupt activity and they look at cricket as an opportunity where they might get some success.”
The ICC official, however, acknowledged the corruptors of the game, like bookies, who are employing encrypted technology from being caught and are trying to make inroads into franchise cricket.
“The corruptors are getting more sophisticated. More often they are using highly encrypted communication techniques.
“They are discovering new ways to move their money around. They are trying to be smarter about how they get into franchise tournaments. “For example in a lower level franchise tournament, they catch hold of a franchise owner who has a clean record to get inside information or to affect the play.”
The ICC chief investigator is also of the view that the attempts are more to corrupt a part of the game, rather than the entire game, through a few key players. “Basically what the corruptors do is to hunt around to find a way to affect a part of the game usually, barely the whole game, and to do that they need one or two players, ideally the opening bat, captain or an opening bowler.
“So the job of my unit is to try and keep those people away from the game so we can trust whatever we are watching.”
Marshall also added the ACU have managed to gather more information about these nefarious activities and have also succeeded in educating the youngsters on how to avoid falling into their traps.
“Increasingly, we are narrowing down on people who are corrupting cricket. We are after them. We are going anywhere in the world to disrupt their activity. — Cricbuzz.
Online Reporter