ICC APPEALS TO TV CHANNEL FOR FIXING FOOTAGE ACCESS

Sydney, Aug. 28: The Al Jazeera TV news channel is planning a follow- up documentary about alleged corruption in cricket, Australian and global cricket chiefs revealed on Tuesday, appealing for access to unedited footage to properly investigate the claims. The Qatar- based broadcaster made a series of spot- fixing allegations in a first documentary entitled “Cricket’s Match- Fixers” earlier this year involving unidentified current and former players.

In that programme, Al Jazeera made contact with an Indian- based member of what it described as a fixing syndicate said to be linked to the notorious D Company crime gang.

“We are aware that there is a second documentary in the offing, this time based on historical recordings between a fixer, suspected to be ( Aneel) Munawar and bookies in India,” said Alex Marshall, head of the International Cricket Council’s anti- corruption unit, in a statement. “As with the first

programme, we will investigate any claims made in a full and thorough manner and we take any allegations of corruption, historical or contemporary, extremely seriously.

“Based on what we already know, we have engaged the services of an independent betting analysis company to examine the claims made about particular matches.”

He urged Al Jazeera to hand over its evidence.

“Access to the raw, unedited footage enables us to build a complete picture around the claims in the documentary and ensure our investigation is as fair and thorough as possible,” he said.

After the original documentary, the ICC launched a probe into the claims and said it had identified everyone involved except Munawar.

● Al Jazeera made a series of spot- fixing allegations in a first documentary entitled “Cricket’s Match- Fixers” earlier this year involving unidentified current, former players