Cricket Australia opposes spot-fixing claims against current & former Australian players

Earlier this year during the month of May news organization Al Jazeera had broadcasted a documentary alleging Australian players of being involved in spot-fixing and used potentially defamatory footage of an Australian player. The International Cricket Council further investigated the claims but were unable to find any conclusive evidence because of the limited information provided by the broadcasters.

However, Cricket Australia’s chief executive James Sutherland said the integrity unit have reviewed the allegations and have not identified any issue. He further said the allegations also involved spot-fixing claims relating to matches from 2011.

“Cricket Australia’s Integrity Unit have conducted a review of the latest claims by Al Jazeera and from the limited information provided, our team have not identified any issues of corruption issues relating to current or former Australian players. We have further handed the matter to the ICC for further investigation with full cooperation. The allegations also involved spot-fixing claims against our players relating to historical matches from 2011,” Sutherland said.

The ICC in May strongly criticised the Al Jazeera for not giving the global governing body unedited documentary footage from the original film to aid their own probe into the allegations.

Launching an appeal to help identify one of the alleged match-fixers in the original documentary on Tuesday, Alex Marshall of the ICC’s ACU said they have made good progress despite the absence of cooperation from the news organisation.

“The absence of any cooperation from the broadcasters had slowed our probe down but we have made good progress. We will provide a full update at the conclusion of the investigation. As with the first programme we have, and will continue to ask for the cooperation of the broadcasters,” Marshall said.