ICC reveal fixing approaches during World Cup, 50 cases under investigation

The General Manager of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC’s) Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) Alex Marshall, according to a report in the Telegraph Sports, confirmed that 50 cases were being investigated for possible wrongdoing and match fixing after various attempts had been made to contact players during the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup in England.  

Alex claimed that the new initiatives taken by the ICC to point out corruptors greatly aided the process of reporting suspicious activities.

“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. At this point as far as I know it looks as though the World Cup was clean.”

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The ACU’s general manager revealed that the corruptors targeted associate teams more than the established teams during the tournament.

“The other development is the corrupters targeting less well off teams in the top tier or going the next level down with the associates. We had a qualifying event for World T20 in the UAE recently where three teams had some investigations attached to them including the UAE team where several have been charged and suspended. Other investigations are ongoing," he said.

Alex claimed that franchise cricket had become the focus of the ICC’s attention because of its attribute of including non-cricket personalities in the form of owners and backers.

“A lot of recent investigations have stemmed from franchise cricket and often below the very top tier of franchise cricket but where the new model of team ownership brings in people from outside normal cricket structures,” he said. “You also have teams not used to playing with each other and a backroom staff and coach who are not familiar with each other so it is quite different from the normal club, county or international team. Power is often held by the owners or backers behind the owners.”