World Cup stars in 50 shock fix claims

The head of cricket’s anti-corruption unit has revealed 50 cases of possible wrongdoing are under investigation and are acting on intelligence gathered from players at the 2019 World Cup in England and Wales.

Ahead of the 20th anniversary of one of cricket’s darkest days — the fixed Centurion test between South Africa and England, which led to Hansie Cronje being banned from the sport for life — the revelations from Alex Marshall, the general manager of the International Cricket Council’s ACU, are a reminder that the sport’s fight against corruption is far from won.

According to Marshall, players at the World Cup in England reported they had been approached before the tournament by suspicious individuals who tried to recruit them to fix in franchise Twenty20 leagues, although the ICC are confident that the tournament itself was clean after security measures — including having officers with each team — were tightened.

“We got very good feedback because we showed players pictures of current corruptors,” Marshall said. “That then led to several reports from people playing in World Cup about contact they had from those corruptors about T20 events in the future.

“None of them related to approaches to fix in the World Cup. As far as I know it looks as though the World Cup was clean.”

Six international captains have reported approaches from corruptors since he took over the running of the unit in 2017.

Marshall — whose unit sifts through around 1000 pieces of evidence annually — says captains like Cronje remain the ideal target for fixers.

“The corruptors absolutely love captains because they make decisions on the field,” he said.

The ICC has the power to seize phones and download call and messaging records, with failure to supply phones resulting in a two-year ban for non-cooperation.

“We have had a massive increase in intelligence over the last couple of years. Three years ago we might have received 200 pieces of information in a year, now we are getting more than 1000,” said Marshall.

“We are looking at between 40 and 50 live cases. It is quite consistent around those numbers now. We charged more people last year than ever before [12] and it will be similar next year.”