International Cricket Council warns players against match fixing
Match fixing has been a plague that has been eating at the international cricket players. With many bookmakers approaching players to fix matches in return for a hefty sum has left the International Cricket Council in a matter or chaos and turmoil. However vowing to deal with this crisis with an iron hand, the ICC’s outgoing anti-corruption unit head Lord Condon has delivered a chilling warning to all cricket players. He made it very clear that “any player thinking of accepting approaches would be entering a murky world inhabited by gangsters and murderers”. Lord Condon painted a gloomy picture of what the future would be like for any player who accepted a bribe, far from any star studded celebrity life.
He said that match fixing was not just a one off incident, there is an entire mafia behind this issue. It is that mafia that has the power to threaten players. He further elaborated that it was not just about the money, there were instances when kidnapping and alleged murder have also has close links with cricket corruption. Lord Condon termed T20 cricket as the biggest challenge. Earlier Tim May of the players council too had warned that such is the format of the shorter game that it allows more space for spot fixing. Thus with the popularity of the shorter format of the game, the chances of bookmakers approaching cricketers have become far more attractive. Giving an interview to the “The News of the World”, Condon said that he had heard news regarding those bookmakers who were involved in the process of match fixing some ten years ago, had started to resurface. He specified that there was information that those people were seen hanging out in hotel lobbies and cricket grounds waiting for a chance to pounce on their pray. He forewarned all the players not to entertain any such person, as complacency in only a few tournaments can bring back the dark days of crickets, a time bygone that the ICC would not want to have to relive again.
Such a warning by Lord Condon sheds light on the fact that fixing of an entire match may be on the rise again contrary to the fact that corrupt bookmakers are only involved in the minor incidents of spot fixing. Spot fixing may just be a ploy used by bookmakers to divert the attention of the officials from the major corruption that may occur soon enough. In light of this information, the ICC’s anti corruption unit is working tirelessly to unravel the mysterious faces behind match fixing.
All these reports are coming to light after an English county player on condition of anonymity said he was approached by an Indian bookmaker to fix the outcome of his team matches that were going to be televised this season. The cost of doing so was about five million pounds. He said the Indian bookmaker made it very clear that there was much more money in fixing an entire match, rather than spot fixing. This in turn gives some factual basis to the theory put forward by Lord Condon. The player reported the incident on the grounds that he did not want to end up like Hansie Cronje and Bob Woolmer. Questions were always raised on the deaths of these two, as Cronje died in a chartered jet crash after missing his commercial flight and Woolmer was found dead in mysterious circumstances after news that he was writing a tell all book.
The chief executive of the Professional Cricketers Association Angus Porter said that all players should be made aware of the serious consequences in the event they are found guilty of a conspiracy to defraud. The anti corruption unit on the other hand also believes that one way of getting rid of this menace is to educate players about the seriousness of this crime and to provide information about any mysterious person that approaches them.
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