Aussie Gambling Agency Investigate ICC

The ICC (International Cricket Council) has reported that it is going to probe an Australian TAB gambling network said to have offered odds of twenty to one that the first ball of The Ashes first test of day five was going to be a called a wide.

This statement was released by the ICC big wigs and it indicates that one of the most prestigious test series (The Ashes) is no longer corruption proof.  The past couple of months have seen a number of match-fixing scandals hit news headlines but the Ashes have always been incident free.

The Ashes hailed by many as the greatest and oldest test series (played between Australia and England) in cricketing history has always been scandal free, these allegations might tarnish cricket’s most celebrated event.

The ICC stated its Anti-Corruption Unit always had a close knit working relationship with sports wagering agencies across the globe and it takes the necessary precautions to prevent bets from being too high, which might induce players into potential match fixing scandals by accepting large amounts of cash by not performing 100%.

The previous week has seen the TAB offer a twenty to one bid and it has a number of top brass within the ICC very concerned. The Chief Executive of the International Cricket Council vowed to mention this matter to the Australian Cricket Board (ACB); sports’ betting is permitted in Australia.

Haroon Lorgat mentioned that this matter is rather serious and should be dealt with in a professional and timely manner. He said, “There are cases which threaten the very sanctity of the game and it doesn’t help us much if we don’t do anything about it, our ultimate goal is to promote cricket as a clean sport that could be enjoyed by all.  The last thing we need right now is another potential scandal that could bring this wonderful game into ill repute.”

Haroon Lorgat had a couple of match-fixing scandals he had to deal with.  The ICC has been sorely tested this year when three Pakistani cricket players (Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif) were involved with spot-fixing a test match against England at the request of a bookie.

Three cricket players have been suspended; their trial will be conducted by the ICC in January.  The ICC has made it perfectly clear that it won’t tolerate any form of incongruity and it aims to root out bribery in cricket once and for all.

In the past the ICC has been accused of only focusing on Asian countries, this is not the case anymore and it intends to pursue suspicious bookies in Australia. The ICC has decided to take all manner of match-fixing scandals head-on on a global scale, it’s not only restricted to South Asia.