Corruptors chase new targets
Cricket’s anti-corruption police are dealing with a record number of up to 20 cases from matches at all levels of the game, from tests down to private leagues.
It is almost a threefold increase in the number of cases since last November as cricket battles constant attempts to corrupt the game by illegal bookmaking rings mainly based in the subcontinent.
It has surprised Alex Marshall, the International Cricket Council’s head of anticorruption who is one year into his job and says that his team are investigating ‘‘live’’ approaches to international captains, as well as reports from players, coaches, support staff and administrators.
The high number of cases is partly a reflection of players reporting more and the widening of investigations to include those not covered by the ICC’S anticorruption code, such as bookmakers and third parties. This is to enable the ICC, working with local law enforcers, to build a better picture of the people at the top of organised crime orchestrating the fixing.
Last November Marshall said he was looking into seven live cases, including approaches to three international captains.
Now four international captains have reported approaches in the past year – two resulted in charges and the others remain under live investigation. The two that resulted in charges are understood to relate to approaches (both rebuffed) to Pakistan’s Sarfraz Ahmed and Zimbabwe’s Graeme Cremer and were investigated last year by the ICC.
Marshall is encouraged by the increased reporting from players and says his investigators are recovering good evidence from the cricketers who are capturing, preserving and sharing evidence using their mobile phones, which significantly helps later investigations.
Marshall has warned that the corruptors are now targeting associate nations looking to set up their own fledgling Twenty20 leagues, believing they are easy pickings, with low-paid players ripe for corruption and board officials naive about how the bookies operate.
‘‘Two international captains reported approaches and they are ongoing investigations,’’ Marshall said. ‘‘There have been lots of leagues emerge in recent months and the corruptors see these as vulnerable events. The corruptors will look to approach captains in any form of the game as they have the most influence over matches. The matches we are looking at are tests, ODIS, international Twenty20s, domestic Twenty20 leagues, associate member competitions and private leagues.
‘‘It is the whole spectrum. The approaches often go through intermediaries, sometimes explayers who are good third parties.
‘‘I have been surprised by the number of approaches and investigations we have ongoing. The corruptors are very active and looking for new approaches all the time.
‘‘I am pleased to see more players reporting than ever before because we need to keep building a better picture of who the corruptors are and how they operate. Predominantly, the approaches originate from corrupt bookies in India but their tentacles will be anywhere in the world they see an opportunity.’’
Marshall is a former chief constable of Hampshire police and, since taking over as head of anti-corruption, has expanded his team of investigators and widened the net to include ‘‘nonparticipants’’, mainly bookies, who are not covered by the ICC anti-corruption code, and their intermediaries, to increase the intelligence pool.
The intermediaries can sometimes be cricket personnel at low levels, such as groundstaff or organisers of net bowlers. For example, it is believed Sarfraz was approached by Irfan Ansari, a coach at the Sharjah Stadium, who organised net bowlers and had coached players through age groups. Ansari was charged in May with three counts of corruption.
Marshall has just returned from India, where he interviewed someone with links to corruption. These are people who agree to work with the ICC out of fear of being reported to police or immigration services and can provide information about players or other cricket staff covered by the ICC’S code of conduct.
‘‘Often, the corruptors will try to find someone a player trusts, such as an ex-player or coach,’’ Marshall said. ‘‘It is ex-players who know the current players well and can be useful for corruptors. We are now actively going after non-participants, which involves more work for us but is a good way of building up a strong background picture.’’
Players often fear for their own safety when making approaches, especially in parts of the world where corrupt local government officials or police are in the pay of bookmakers. In some countries, police involved in corruption are able to organise contract killings and know the home addresses of players and their families, which can be used as intimidation to keep them quiet.
‘‘Lots of players are fearful about talking to us, believing they put themselves at risk because these people are very dangerous, but in the vast majority of cases the corruptors would have no way of getting to the players and they have nothing to fear,’’ Marshall said. ‘‘There are a small number of cases where they [corruptors] are linked to serious organised crime.’’
Players are often approached by corruptors bearing gifts. One player was offered a new iphone X by a friend at an after-match party and a few days later received a call asking him for information in return. He reported the approach.
Last year, the ICC declared the Ajman All Stars League, a private Twenty20 competition in the United Arab Emirates, corrupt. It has established it was the 20th of 22 private leagues the organisers had arranged for the purposes of fixing.
Often the leagues will feature a small number of ageing international or former international players, a television deal with a free-to-air broadcaster in India or over the internet, and teams will generally be filled by club cricketers on very low wages. The set-up and production costs will be around NZ$172,000 but there will be no sponsorship, corporate or ticket revenue, so the organisers are looking to make money another way, namely through fixing matches for the illegal Indian betting market.
Marshall confirmed there had been no reports of approaches for the England v India series.
The ICC has had success recently. Two officials in Zimbabwe have been charged. One was convicted and banned for 20 years for approaching Cremer to fix a match, and another, Enock Ikope, who runs the domestic franchise the Mashonaland Eagles and sits on the Zimbabwe Cricket Board, has been charged and is suspended pending a tribunal for a separate matter.