International cricket faces match-fixing crisis

THE credibility of international cricket is in question once again after it emerged seven corruption investigations are currently under way. Three of those involve illegal approaches by fixers to international captains, of which two — to Pakistan’s Sarfraz Ahmed and Zimbabwe’s Graeme Cremer — are already in the public domain. The third is not in charge of a major side. But the number of incidents being looked into by the ICC’s anti-corruption unit highlights the task facing the ACU’s new general manager, Alex Marshall, a former chief constable of Hampshire. In particular, fixers are targeting women’s and Under 19s cricket. The bribes reach as high as £150,000. The ACU are now able to charge suspected offenders who refuse to surrender their mobile phones for inspection. Bans for non-compliance could extend to two years.