‘Spot-fixing’ haunt cricket and Pakistan
London/Karachi/Karachi : Spot-fixing allegations continue to haunt the cricket world as the International Cricket Council (ICC) launched fresh investigations in another spot-fixing allegations in Friday’s ODI involving Pakistan and England at the Oval on Saturday.
The investigations are launched after British daily ‘The Sun’ raised doubts on the scoring pattern of Pakistan’s innings in Friday’s ODI in London.
The Sun reported that insidious activities, involving manipulating passages of play such as the number of runs scored in a block of overs during Pakistan’s innings, took place in the match.
Pakistan won the match by 23 runs, but the ICC admitted the scoring patterns in the match were suspicious.
But ICC’s chief executive Haroon Lorgat said that the following information received by the ICC from a British newspaper and its source, the ICC now believes a full investigation is warranted.
?A source informed the newspaper that a certain scoring pattern would emerge during certain stages of the match and, broadly speaking, that information appeared to be correct. We,therefore, feel it is incumbent upon us to launch a full inquiry into this particular game although it is worth pointing out at this stage that we are not stating as fact that anything untoward has occurred. Only in the fullness of the investigation can that be established,” Lorgat said.
?We thank the newspaper for its information and cooperation in this regard and we will work with its staff and sources to ensure the full truth surrounding this match is ascertained. The ICC maintains a zero-tolerance approach to corruption in cricket and, as a matter of course, follows up on all credible information that is received, whatever the source. Any player or official found guilty of an offence will face the full rigour of our robust Anti-Corruption Code so that we can ensure the integrity of the sport is maintained,? he said.
British tabloid ‘The Sun’ claimed that the ICC is investigating the match, which Pakistan won by 23 runs on Friday, “after its probe exposed evidence apparently showing that bookies knew details of Pakistan’s innings before the match even began.”
“The new investigation will center on suspicious scoring patterns in Pakistan’s innings and on two suspect overs during yesterday’s match at The Oval,” the report stated.
“Illegal bookies in India and Dubai apparently knew in advance what would happen so they could launch a betting coup. But The Sun’s undercover team was able to pass details to ICC inspectors before the match began.”
According to the newspaper, the scoring pattern of the game matched with the “target that bookies had been told in advance by a fixer.”
The tabloid claimed it “received details of calls between a notorious Dubai-based match fixer and a Delhi bookie.”
“We alerted ICC corruption busters led by ex- police chief Sir Ronnie Flanagan. After a frantic round of calls the ICC decided to issue a general warning to Pakistan’s players, but by then the game had started,” it said.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) maintained that the world body is not looking into the national team’s third one-dayer against England for suspected match-fixing, saying that there is “no truth” in them.
“These are meaningless allegations without any proof. I haven’t read the report so I can’t comment any further. The ICC has not got in touch with us on any such accusation. That is total imagination. There is no truth in it,” said PCB chairman Ejaz Butt.
