English Cricket Board to fight match fixing for T20 tournament
English Cricket Board (ECB) has decided to adopt stricter measures to fight match fixing and corruption for the domestic T20 tournament. English cricket was rocked after various incidents of spot fixing came to the fore a few weeks back.
Two players from the English county of Essex were charged with and proven guilty for spot fixing charges during the domestic season. The county cricket has since been thrown into turmoil as these irregularities and rampant betting hint at a bigger malaise in the game. Steve Elworthy who is the head of communication and marketing of the ECB explained in detail all the measures and the extent to which ECB is willing to go to root out corruption from cricket in England.
After the match fixing scandal first broke out in 2000, International Cricket Council (ICC) instituted a body called Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU). The purpose of the unit was to clean the sport of the corruption that had raised its ugly head when former South African skipper and late Hansie Cronje confessed to taking money from an Indian bookie. The unit is also responsible to monitor first class cricket played across the world and make sure that there no irregularities in the way the sport is played.
Elworthy informed the press that it has aksed the ACSU to increase its vigilance and provide for enhanced monitoring of the matches during the Friends Provident T20 Cup which is England’s domestic T20 tournament played amongst the counties. He also told the press just before the first game of the tournament between Sussex and Somerset, the winners and runners-up respectively from last year of the other measures ECB was taking with the help of ACSU.
The ACSU has prepared special material in form of reading text documents, videos and booklets for the players to study. The purpose is to make players especially the younger lot aware of all possible temptations and repercussion that they might face if they bring the game in disrepute. ECB has worked closely with ACSU to prepare this material.
Even though betting is legalized in England and also rigorously regulated, the betting dens in India and Pakistan which are still very much active and illegal. With Sky Sports broadcasting the matches from the Friends Provident T20 Cup these matches can be seen live in the Indian sub-continent. It only helps in bringing them under the betting net and making the player susceptible to the lure of lucre.
There have been talks of not broadcasting these matches in the Indian sub continent to avoid possibilities of corruption but ECB feels that such a move will only affect the television revenue.
The problem though has been far from been removed. Recently Shakib Al Hasan had confessed of being approach by a man from India who had asked him to underperform in a one day international against Ireland in 2008. There were also reports that the third season of the Indian Premier League may have been tainted but Condon of ACSU rebuked such charged saying that ACSU was thoroughly involved at all levels during the IPL – 3.
But the same can’t be said of the first two seasons of the IPL and the ACSU presence was minimal and most of the monitoring was the done the IPL and BCCI themselves.
With more money coming into the game through leagues such as the IPL, Friends Provident Cup and KFC Cup, cricketers will only become more vulnerable. Finally whatever effort ICC takes to preserve the sanctity of the game it will remain at risk. The integrity of the players will be important to save the game of any further blushes.
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