Azhar bats for ousted Raman
ICC says fixing allegations ‘implausible’, concludes investigation
The ICC on Monday dismissed claims made by news channel Al Jazeera that India’s Test matches against England (2016) and Australia (2017) were fixed, saying the passages of play identified as fixed were entirely predictable, and therefore “implausible as a fix”. Al Jazeera in a documentary — ‘Cricket’s Match Fixers’ — released in 2018 had claimed that India’s game against England in Chennai in 2016 and the one against Australia in
2017 in Ranchi were fixed. The International Cricket Council (ICC) also cleared five people — filmed by the channel — of any wrongdoing saying even as they behaved in a questionable manner but no credible evidence was available to charge them.
During the programme, an alleged bookie Aneel Munnawar was seen making claims about his dubious connections and history of fixing matches including two Tests involving Virat Kohli’s Indian team.
The ICC had launched an investigation into the claims. “The programme alleged that two matches were fixed: India v England in Chennai in
2016 and India v Australia in Ranchi in 2017. To assess whether the passages of play highlighted in the programme were unusual in any way, the ICC engaged four independent betting and cricketing specialists to analyse the claims,” the ICC said in a release after it concluded its investigation.
“All four concluded that the passages of play identified in the programme as being allegedly fixed were entirely predictable, and therefore implausible as a fix,” the release added.
“No charges will be brought under the ICC Anti-Corruption Code,” the ICC said.