No evidence for claims: Sutherland
PERTH: Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland insists there is no evidence, substance or justification to spotfixing claims that have marred the third Ashes test, while the International Cricket Council has also declared the match is clean.
Australian and English cricketers woke yesterday morning to bombshell spotfixing allegations from British newspaper
The Sun, claiming a fix attempt was due in the Waca test.
The Sun published purportedly undercover video footage of bookmakers offering to sell details of rigged periods of play for betting purposes.
The report claims two Indian fixers are alleged to be working with an Australian partner, known as The Silent Man, and that a former Australian cricketer and Australian administrator are involved in the racket.
The ICC and CA are both taking the matter seriously but Sutherland, having been part of a conference call involving the head of the ICC’s anticorruption unit Alex Marshall, insists no player or official involved in the game is under any suspicion or has been contacted by alleged fixers.
‘‘There’s no substance to these allegations or justification to suspect that this test match or indeed the Ashes series as a whole is subject to corrupt activities,’’ Sutherland said.
‘‘My comments today are based on a briefing I’ve had from Alex Marshall and I don’t think for one moment anyone should believe that we’re complacent.
‘‘Alex Marshall will, with his team, continue to investigate this matter. Obviously if there’s anything credible it will be a deep and forensic investigation.
‘‘The timing is a bit strange, obviously, but I guess I’ll leave that to Alex to make judge ments on what the reason behind this might be.’’
Players are aware of the allegations. Australia captain Steve Smith noted at the toss in Perth that ‘‘there’s no tolerance and no place for that in our game’’.
‘‘As far as I know there’s nothing that has been going on or anything like that,’’ Smith told the ABC.
Sutherland is unaware of any attempt to fix any element of a Big Bash League game. The
Sun’s footage also features a discussion on how the men claim they can distort elements of twenty20 games in Australia and India.
‘‘You want to see something magic in the Big Bash? Big Bash we can do, winning and loss,’’ one man says in the clip, claiming he has connections with Australia, South Africa and Pakistan players.
‘‘In Big Bash we will get four to five matches confirmed news.’’
Marshall confirmed in a statement he reviewed The
Sun’s dossier and ‘‘there is no indication that any players in this test have been in contact with the alleged fixers’’.
‘‘The allegations are wideranging and relate to various forms of cricket in several countries, including T20 tournaments. We will look closely at all the information,’’ Marshall said.
Marshall, who served in the UK police for 37 years and was hired by the ICC earlier this year, met with Australian Federal Police and other agencies earlier this month.
The meeting was part of a global tour about information sharing and communication — and not part of a specific investigation.
There are no player names or specific details in The Sun’s report, as opposed to the News
of the World’s noball sting in 2010.
The man in The Sun footage claims he can arrange games to follow ‘‘scripts’’ that cover runrate and wickets — something that would require the involvement of several corrupt players on both sides. — AAP