Afghan star reports fixing approach

DUBAI: The scourge of match-fixing has once again raised its ugly head.On Monday, international anti-corruption authorities confirmed a leading Afghanistan cricketer was recently approached to under-perform in a new Twenty20 League.

An official said that Mohammad Shahzad, the wicketkeeper-batsman who is featuring in the ongoing Asia Cup, recently received an offer to underperform in the inaugural edition of the Afghan Premier League T20 to be played in Sharjah from October 5 to 23.

Fully aware of the anti-corruption protocol, Shahzad immediately reported the approach to Afghanistan’s team management and the matter swiftly sent the anti-corruption unit of the International Cricket Council (ICC).

“There was an approach made during the Asia Cup, but for their [Afghanistan’s] own T20 league,” an ICC official said. “The matter was reported through the right channels on Saturday and is being looked into by the anti-corruption unit.”

Shahzad would be playing Shahzad for the Paktia franchise to play in the Afghan League that is set to feature a number of current and former internationals like Brendon McCullum, Shahid Afridi and Chris Gayle.

His case is only the tip of the iceberg as fixing mafia continue to target cricketers.Alex Marshall, head of the ICC’s anti-corruption unit, confirmed as many as five international captains have been approached for spot-fixing over the last 12 months; four of them from Full Member countries.

Sarfraz Ahmed, the Pakistan captain, is the only one to have publicly stated that an approach had been made, during the Sri Lanka series last year.

“There have been 32 investigations in the last 12 months, eight involve players as suspects,” Marshall said at a media event at the ICC’s headquarters. “Five of them involve administrators or non-playing personnel. Three of these individuals have been charged. Five internationals captains have also reported receiving approaches to spot-fix.”

Marshall underlined the need to work closely with all boards to prevent corruption and of the need to keep educating players about the many methods fixing syndicates use to spread their influence across the newly formed T20 leagues.

“We try to link up with the intelligence. We look at what we know about this event, are we providing anti-corruption cover, are we already there or is it being provided by another party? Are there any other strands of intelligence we have about that tournament. Is there anything about financial backers or the people surrounding the tournament are suspicious?

“We never launch off an investigation because something looks odd on the field or we get a single anonymous report. We get quite a lot of single, anonymous reports. We start putting the pieces together and there’s sufficient reason to think on reasonable grounds to start investigating this, then we take it on. We do find a lot of corrupters who move between formats of international and domestic, because they’re looking for the opportunity and vulnerability.” —with inputs from agencies