London, May 26 (IANS) The English cricket Wednesday again came under the cloud of match fixing with reports surfacing that a county player has revealed that he was approached by an Indian businessman seeking to fix the results of televised domestic one-day matches.
The disclosure was made in a Daily Telegraph report which said that the professional player, who has more than 10 years’ experience in English cricket, was told that other county cricketers had accepted money from bookmakers and that ‘things are already happening in county cricket’.
The player has contacted the game’s authorities on the issue and has been advised to remain anonymous.
The Professional Cricketers’ Association was made aware of the approach on Tuesday and will be contacting the International Cricket Council’s Anti-Corruption Unit on the player’s behalf.
‘They basically told me I could name my price for providing them with knowledge of the result of the game and they made me believe other counties are already involved,’ the player was quoted as saying in the report.
‘My worry with this is that there will be a situation where two of the smaller counties play against each other in a televised game and they could come to an agreement and make about five times their salary from one match.’
‘This problem is a lot more serious than people think. Others could be out there naming their own price. It is a scary thought,’ the unnamed player was quoted as saying.
Match fixing is closely linked with organised crime gangs and it seems players are reluctant to put their safety, and that of their families, at risk by publicly revealing approaches.
Ian Smith, the PCA legal director, said: ‘The PCA are determined to work with the ACU to develop a workable protocol that allows players to come forward with confidence. We recognise that it is for the good of the game that players fulfil their duty to report approaches. We are aware of the concerns players might have over these issues and we will work with ACU to address those.’
Televised county matches are beamed into India and it is in the sub-continent that illegal betting rings provide the funds for potentially bribing players or officials, the report claimed.
While the player has reported his concerns before discussions moved on to actually identifying a match to fix, it is likely that the game in question would have been a Friends Provident Twenty20 Cup tie. The competition starts next week with more than 30 matches televised live overseas.
It had been thought that cricket was now more vulnerable to spot fixing, where a player is paid to perform a specific act such as bowling a wide and Lord Condon, the outgoing head of the ACU, confirmed this at a press conference last week.
Essex police are currently conducting an investigation into alleged spot fixing and recently two players, Mervyn Westfield and Danish Kaneria, were arrested and bailed until September.
But this latest approach, however ham-fisted, shows that fixing the result of a match remains an issue. Vast sums of money could be made by betting syndicates if they were to know in advance the result of a game, even one played away from the bright lights of international cricket.
The player was left with the perception that if he did not take the money then somebody else would.
‘Their line of communication with me was that other people were already involved,’ he said. ‘I don’t know if they were just telling me that to persuade me to get involved or whether it was serious. The idea was that I would take the offer into the dressing room to get the others to agree.’
County players were briefed by the PCA before the start of this season over what to do if they received a suspicious approach.
