Fixing to the fore again

The Al Jazeera TV news channel is planning a follow-up documentary about alleged corruption in cricket, Australian and global cricket chiefs revealed Tuesday, appealing for access to unedited footage to properly investigate the claims.

The Qatar-based broadcaster made a series of spot-fixing allegations in a first documentary entitled "Cricket's Match-Fixers" earlier this year involving unidentified current and former players. In that programme, Al Jazeera made contact with an Indian-based member of what it described as a fixing syndicate said to be linked to the notorious D Company crime gang.

"We are aware that there is a second documentary in the offing, this time based on historical recordings between a fixer, suspected to be [Aneel] Munawar and bookies in India," said Alex Marshall, head of the International Cricket Council's anti-corruption unit. Based on what we already know, we have engaged the services of an independent betting analysis company to examine the claims made about particular matches.

"Access to the raw, unedited footage enables us to build a complete picture around the claims in the documentary and ensure our investigation is as fair and thorough as possible," he said. After the original documentary, the ICC launched a probe into the claims and said it had identified everyone involved except Munawar, and appealed to the cricket community to help track him down.

FRESH ALLEGATIONS AGAINST AUSTRALIA

An ESPNCricinfo report yesterday stated that the follow-up documentary will air fresh allegations against current and former Australian players relating to matches from 2011, a year when Australia concluded the Ashes series, played in the World Cup, toured Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, South Africa and hosted New Zealand and India.

“Our long-standing position on these matters is that credible claims should be treated very seriously, and investigated," Cricket Australia (CA) chief executive James Sutherland was quoted as saying. "CA's Integrity Unit have conducted a review of the latest claims by Al Jazeera, from a known criminal source, and, from the limited information provided by Al Jazeera, our team have not identified any issues of corruption relating to current or former Australian players."