Al Jazeera plan documentary on fixing, ICC claim channel not co-operating

Robin Morris during his Indian Cricket League stint in 2007

Test matches featuring heavyweights India and Australia could have been among those influenced by match fixers in the last two years, a sting operation has alleged. The International Cricket Council (ICC), however, claimed Al Jazeera is not co-operating enough into its investigation on the allegations made by them. "We have been in ongoing dialogue with the broadcaster which has refused our continual requests to cooperate and share information which has hampered our investigation to date," the ICC said in a statement.

"The content of the programme, is of course useful to the investigation, but I would now urge the production team to provide us with all un-edited and unseen evidence they are in possession of, to enable us to expedite a thorough investigation," it added. Cricket Australia and BCCI have decided to wait for the completion of an ongoing ICC probe before acting on the sensational claims.

The sting has been carried out by Al Jazeera channel and the matches in question are India v Sri Lanka (Galle, July 26-29, 2017), India vs Australia (Ranchi, March 16-20, 2017) and India vs England (Chennai, December 16-20, 2016). The first and third Tests mentioned were won by India while the Ranchi encounter ended in a draw.

Pitch doubts
The allegations revolve around the possibility of the pitch being doctored at the behest of fixers (India v Sri Lanka), and involvement of some Australian and England players in spot fixing the other two games. However, no Indian players' name has cropped up in any wrongdoing. The Indian connection to the latest scandal is former Mumbai cricketer Robin Morris. The BCCI said it would wait for the outcome of the ICC investigation before deciding on stopping his pension for his first-class career.

Morris is seen meeting an undercover reporter and saying that he could get players to fix a T20 game for a proposed tournament in Dubai involving retired players. "For example, in T20, they have a session of 10 overs. So in 10 overs they say (the bookmakers) 70, 71, 72 runs. So accordingly, we do betting and for example one of our friends is playing there, we will tell him to stop it. In the ninth, 10th over don't score more than seven runs. After 10 overs get out. Pay the player and bloody hell, get money from the market," Morris says. Morris, along with former Pakistan cricketer Hasan Raza is allegedly seen in the video bragging about their ability to doctor pitches through groundsmen.

Aneel factor
Another alleged match fixer, Aneel Munawar is also seen claiming to manipulate particular sessions of the game. Meanwhile, reacting to allegations made by the television channel, Cricket Australia (CA) has asked for raw footage and un-edited material. "Together with the ICC, we are aware of the investigation by Al Jazeera into alleged corruption in cricket," CA chief executive James Sutherland was quoted as saying by Cricinfo. "Although not having been provided an opportunity to view the documentary or any raw footage, our long-standing position on these matters is that credible claims will be treated very seriously and fully investigated.

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