Cricket Australia challenges Al Jazeera over new spot-fixing claims
Tuesday 28 August 2018 15:26, UK
Cricket Australia has urged Al Jazeera to provide information relating to alleged corruption in cricket to the International Cricket Council.
The Qatar-based television station is planning to produce a follow-up to the documentary released earlier this year that made several spot-fixing allegations.
The latest offering is set to involve claims against current and former Australia internationals relating to historical matches from 2011.
"We are aware of the new investigative documentary by Al Jazeera into alleged corruption in cricket," Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland said.
"Since the broadcast of Al Jazeera's first documentary, the ICC Anti-Corruption Unit has been conducting a thorough investigation into the claims made, however this has been hampered by a lack of cooperation from Al Jazeera.
"Although not having been provided an opportunity to review any raw audio or footage, our long-standing position on these matters is that credible claims should be treated very seriously, and investigated.
"Cricket Australia's Integrity Unit have conducted a review of the latest claims by Al Jazeera, from a known criminal source, and, from the limited information provided by Al Jazeera, our team have not identified any issues of corruption relating to current or former Australian players.
"We urge Al Jazeera to provide all un-edited materials and any other evidence to the ICC Anti-Corruption Unit."
Australian Cricketers' Association chief executive Alistair Nicholson added: "The players have zero tolerance for any behaviour that may impact upon the integrity of the game.
"However, enough is enough when it comes to people making unsupported accusations that have the ability to unfairly tarnish players' reputations.
"Whoever is making these allegations should provide all the information they purport to have to the ICC to allow them to assess it."
The ICC is attempting to discover the identity of one alleged match-fixer, identified in the initial documentary as Aneel Munawar, a false name used to protect his identity. The same source is reported to be central to the second documentary.
Alex Marshall, head of the ICC's anti-corruption unit, said investigators "have identified every other person in the original documentary and have spoken to a number of them in connection with match-fixing, including those who are not deemed to be participants under our anti-corruption code.
"However, the true identity of Aneel Munawar remains a mystery. He plays a significant role in the program yet enquiries with law enforcement and immigration sources have not identified or located him."
