Australia's Glenn Maxwell raises his bat and helmet to celebrate scoring a century during the second day of the Ranchi Test. (AP Photo)
Australian batsman Glenn Maxwell has said that he is "shocked" and "hurt" by the allegations of spot fixing that were made in an Al Jazeera documentary about corruption.
The documentary, which investigates the Tests between Australia and India in Ranchi (March 2017) and England and India in Chennai (December 2016) shows Indian national Aneel Munawar who is said to work for the crime syndicate D-Company naming two Australian players and three England players who were a part of the fixing. Allegedly, the fixers instructed the players to score runs at a run-rate lower than what the illegal betting market was placing bets on during certain periods of the game.
However, Maxwell, who scored his maiden Test century in the match in question responded to the allegations in an interview to an Australian radio station SEN, saying he was “devastated.”
"I was shocked. I was a bit hurt by it as well,” Maxwell said. “To have these allegations about your involvement in a game where you've only got happy memories about it, great memories...I still remember the feeling after hugging Steve Smith after getting my maiden Test hundred.
"To have that tarnished by these allegations was pretty devastating and obviously there's absolutely no truth to it whatsoever. It was 100% unfair, to tarnish one of the best moments of my career was pretty brutal.
"The only thing they could have done worse was tarnish that (2015) World Cup win. They're two of the best moments of my career. To say I'd done anything untoward in that game, when I'd just finally got back in the Test side - I'd worked my absolute backside off - to say I'd do anything to ruin that would be absolutely ridiculous."
Maxwell has not been formally approached by anti-corruption officials from Cricket Australia or the ICC yet, albeit he was sent the footage from the documentary which was relevant to him and was told that the documentary was going to be aired.
"If (Al Jazeera) mentioned any names, they would be taken down pretty heavily,” he said. “They didn't mention any specific names but did basically say the time of the game, which was my involvement. You could see it was the gear that I was using, and there wasn't anyone else using that gear in that game. That was certainly very hard to take."
The Australian batsman said that he has previously reported instances on the cricket field which he felt were suspicious to anti-corruption officials during the IPL and other overseas T20 leagues.
"I've been very honest with them (anti-corruption officers) the whole way through with the IPL. If I've ever seen anything untoward I always sat down with them, had a long coffee and just talked about everything to make sure nothing ever, ever comes back to me. If there's anything slightly amiss, I always give them a call and make sure they have every bit of evidence they can possibly have. There's some things you see in the game of cricket where you're always just a little bit unsure. All the things you do hear in the game, and when it comes out later on you go, 'Oh, I swear I could have noticed that while I was watching it'.
"It was probably easier when I was captain and I was able to see the way the game was going, and the instructions that I was giving players, and the way the game was moving, I could actually work it out a little better. There wasn't really anything untoward in the season I was captain, but you could certainly tell from opposition stuff and that's why I reported certain things."
A full investigation by the ICC's anti-corruption unit, in unison with the CA, ECB and BCCI is currently underway after the international body and CA requested Al-Jazeera for the un-edited footage of the documentary to make a thorough investigation into the matter.
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