ICC Dismisses Match-Fixing Claims by Al-Jazeera Documentary Due to 'Insufficient Reliable Evidence'

The ICC has dismissed the alleged match-fixing as depicted by Al-Jazeera’s sting operation due to ‘insufficient credible and reliable evidence,’ a press release from the world body said. ‘Cricket’s Match Fixers’ was broadcast on May 27, 2018 on the channel and claimed that two test matches-India vs England (2016) and India vs Australia (2017) were fixed. After it went ON-AIR, it created a lot of flutter and caused ICC to open its own investigation to corroborate the claim.

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“The comprehensive investigation focused on three main areas: the claims made by the programme, the suspects who were part of it and how the programme gathered evidence. The programme alleged that two matches were fixed: India v England in Chennai in 2016 and India v Australia in Ranchi in 2017. To assess whether the passages of play highlighted in the programme were unusual in any way, the ICC engaged four independent betting and cricketing specialists to analyse the claims. All four concluded that the passages of play identified in the programme as being allegedly fixed were entirely predictable, and therefore implausible as a fix,” the press release said.

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All five Participants to the Code who featured in the programme have been interviewed by the ICC Integrity Unit and there is insufficient evidence based on the normal thresholds applied through the Code to lay any charges,” the release added.

Alex Marshall the head of ICC’s anti-corruption wing said that other parties are  welcome to investigate the game of cricket but they can’t do much if they don’t have sufficient evidence.

“We welcome the reporting of alleged corrupt activity within cricket as there is no place for such conduct in our sport, but we also need to be satisfied there is sufficient evidence to sustain charges against Participants. In the case of the claims aired in this programme, there are fundamental weaknesses in each of the areas we have investigated that make the claims unlikely and lacking in credibility, a viewpoint that has been corroborated by four independent experts.

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