ECB highlighted corruption monitoring for domestic T20 Cricket
The domestic T20 tournament of England with the first round of the matches crushed into life. The ECB’s head of marketing and communication, Steve Elworthy has highlighted the efforts which are being put to make sure that the England cricket is not spoiled by corruption and scandal.
The Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU) of the ICC have been called up to further improve their monitoring of the Series by Elworthy, and a close discussion has been going on with them in this regard as told by Elworthy prior to the start of the Provident T20 tournament at Hove.
A special focus has also been given to the education of the cricketers and the Association of the Professional Cricketers is also considering this issue, he added. The entire text as well as the content that has been given to them regarding education has been cross checked by Elworthy himself.
After the scandal of Hansie Cronje in 2000, a lot of effort has been put up by the ICC to clear up the international cricket from corruption.
The comfort with which the bookmakers, through satellite internet and television can easily access the matches implies that the game of cricket is still in danger more particularly the domestic series that fail to grab a huge amount of attraction as compared to the international fixtures.
This curse of match fixing needs to be eliminated from the international cricket. Steve Elworthy in this regard is working vigorously with the ACSU so that everything should be handled rightly. He added that this issue has been looked after very carefully.
Sky Sports completely covered The Friends Provident T20 Tournament whereas these matches can also be seen in India and its surroundings if they are being covered in the UK. As a result, it opens the door for the prohibited market of betting, which is yet considered to be prevailing in the subcontinent in spite of the massive struggle to clear up the sports. However, a set of high quality policies will surely be the way further towards the settlement of this betting issue.
The system is in place as the cricketers are given people to phone regarding any patterns. This is perhaps the only way to wipe it out.
However the issue still prevails as a major one. It was revealed by the Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan recently that a man wanted to persuade him for the results of the one day match against Ireland in 2008. According to cricinfo, two of his team members were approached ahead of the same link.
Mean while, last June, an attempt was also made to persuade two of the Australian players during the World T20.
Two Essex players from the domestic cricket are recently under inquiry for spot fixing as well. So the evil influence of match fixing has already started to affect domestic cricket as well which is not a healthy sign at all.
However, there is certainly no clue as to say that IPL3 was infected in any manner keeping in mind the massive contribution of the ACSU. However, for the first two editions of the series, the much needed infrastructure had not been finalized as yet.
With the recent expansions of the short format of the game of cricket including the competitions like the ECB's latest format, some significant measures are in corner to protect its honour. In this regard, the basic work has already been finalized as said by Elworthy, the ECB’s head of marketing and communication.
What they have attempted to do in this perspective is to have placed the building blocks in the area of a tournament as suggested by Elworthy. They have a number of years to develop this series into something and from their perspective they have put those building blocks in position.
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