TV company Al Jazeera alleged that a small group of England cricket players rigged passages of play in international games. – an accusation that has been denied.
In an investigative documentary, one player (with his voice distorted) is purportedly heard talking to alleged fixer Aneel Munawar before the 2011 World Cup and apparently agreeing to have money deposited into an account.
The unnamed player told the TV station the audio footage was a “fabrication.”
The claims surround spot-fixing – arranging for above or below a certain number of runs to be scored during a block, normally ten overs.
The matches include the England v India Test at Lord’s in 2011, three games in England’s Test series against Pakistan in the UAE in 2012, England v South Africa in the 2011 World Cup and England v Afghanistan in the 2012 World Twenty20.
The programme also claims that Aussie players carried out spot-fixes in five matches during the same period and Pakistan players in three. It says 25 of the 26 alleged fixes came to pass.
It was the second documentary produced by Al Jazeera this year and, like the first, offered more questions than answers. The screened evidence was flimsy at best.
Test captain Joe Root and head coach Trevor Bayliss both described claims in the first programme as “outrageous.”
Alex Marshall, head of ICC’s anti-corruption unit, said: “As you’d expect, we will again take the contents of the programme seriously…however, I refute the assertion that cricket does not take the issue of corruption seriously.”
An ECB spokesman added: “Whilst the limited information we have been given by Al Jazeera is poorly prepared and lacks clarify and corroboration, it has been properly assessed.
“Analysis of this by the ECB integrity team has cast no doubt on the integrity or behaviour of any England player, current or former.”
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