ICC anti-corruption unit uncovers new match-fixing plot

The International Cricket Council (ICC), the sport’s global governing body, has said that its anti-corruption unit was able to prevent a new match-fixing plot and identify the people involved.

According to the Sportinglife.com website, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, chairman of the special ICC unit, said the incident involved members of a national cricket team, but did not disclose the country or individuals concerned.

However, Flanagan, a retired senior British police officer, did say that the unit did gather the team in question’s players together to remind them of the danger that match-fixing poses.

The revelation comes one day before the start of the World Twenty20 national team tournament begins in India.

“Quite recently, we had reason to believe that members of a particular team had intentions to manipulate events in forthcoming matches,” Flanagan said during a press conference at the weekend.

“This was an international team, but I am not going to go into any details; the case is still under our investigation.

“Certain individuals we believe had intention to manipulate events, to facilitate betting on those events.

“When we come by a belief that something may happen in the future, bearing in mind that we exist to prevent corruption…we decided in this particular case that we would intervene immediately.

“We would bring together the entire squad, we would focus on individuals whom we suspected but we would remind the entire squad of all their responsibilities.

“I am certain that our action in that particular case did indeed prevent the intention of just one or two individuals.

“We have taken action in relation to those individuals and will be taking further action.”

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