AUSTRALIA, ENGLAND REJECT CRICKET FIXING AS PROBE LAUNCHED

AUSTRALIA and England yesterday rejected fresh allegations about corruption in cricket by television news channel Al Jazeera, which claimed there had been 26 spot-fixing incidents in 15 international matches. In a follow-up documentary to one aired earlier this year, the Qatari-based broadcaster reported on Sunday that a small group of England players allegedly cheated in seven games between 2011 and 2012. It claimed Australian players were similarly involved in five matches over the same period, Pakistan players in three and players from other, unidentified, teams in one match. “In some cases, both teams appear to have delivered a fix,” it said, pointing to purported recordings of a match-fixer calling in the fixes to a notorious Indian bookmaker linked to organised crime. Those claims were dismissed by both countries, with the latest documentary sparking a similar response from Cricket Australia and the England Cricket Board. “Cricket Australia takes a zero-tolerance approach against anyone trying to compromise the integrity of the game, and to suggest anything otherwise is unsubstantiated and incorrect,” CA chief executive James Sutherland said yesterday. “We have full confidence in our players in also protecting the game.” The ECB was also adamant that the claims lacked credibility. “Whilst the limited information we have been given by Al Jazeera is poorly prepared and lacks clarity and corroboration, it has been properly assessed,” it said in a statement. “Analysis of this by the ECB integrity team has cast no doubt on the integrity or behaviour of any England player, current or former.”