Fixing claims rock Ashes , ICC, CA say no evidence

Perth, December 14 

Cricket chiefs voiced “grave concern” but said there was no evidence that the third Ashes Test between Australia and England has been corrupted after a match-fixing bombshell rocked the series. British newspaper The Sun alleged two bookmakers, both Indians, one called “Mr Big”, had offered to sell it details of the rigged periods of play in the Perth Test, which could be bet on to win huge sums.

One of them claimed to have worked on the scam with former and current internationals, including a World Cup-winning all-rounder. They said they liaised with a fixer in Australian cricket known as “The Silent Man”. No Australia or England players were named as being involved. The tabloid said their undercover reporters were asked for up to £140,000 ($187,000) to “spot fix” markets such as the exact amount of runs scored in an over. “I will tell you this over, this runs and then you have to put all the bets on that over,” one of the bookmakers was quoted as saying. Asked if it was a good source, he said: “Absolutely correct information.”

ICC says no evidence 

The International Cricket Council (ICC) said the revelations were of “grave concern” and an investigation had been launched, but it did not believe the match had been tainted. “From my initial assessment of the material, there is no evidence, either from The Sun or via our own intelligence, to suggest the current Test match has been corrupted,” said ICC’s anti-corruption chief Alex Marshall.

“At this stage of the investigation, there is no indication that any players in this Test have been in contact with the alleged fixers.” Cricket Australia chief James Sutherland said the allegations were serious, but he was confident, based on the dossier handed to ICC, there was no reason “to suspect that this Test match or indeed the Ashes series as a whole is subject to corrupt activities”.

He added that all players were educated on a regular basis about the risks of corruption. The England Cricket Board pledged to work closely with ICC, while also insisting “there is no suggestion that any of the England team is involved in any way”.

Follow scripts 

The Indian pair — secretly filmed at hotels in Dubai and Delhi during the paper’s four-month investigation — claimed the corrupt players would signal the fix was on by making a subtle gesture on the field, such as changing their gloves. Spotters in the crowd would then tell bookies, who put millions of bets into the illegal Indian betting market.  

The Indian fixers claimed they could get players to follow  “scripts” — such how many runs would be scored in a session, or an innings, when a wicket would fall and what a team would do if it won the toss, The Sun said. “I will give you work in an Ashes Test. Session runs, maybe day one, two, three. We have two session work, one session costs Rs 60 lakh rupees (£69,000), two sessions 120 lakh rupees (£138,000),” it cited one of the men as saying. — AFP

What was alleged

A report in The Sun tabloid said that two men asked the newspaper’s undercover reporters for up to £140,000 to “spot-fix” parts of the third Test, things such as the exact amount of runs scored in an over. No individual players on either team were named in the report. But the two alleged bookies reeled off names of players they claimed were their “puppets”. The alleged bookies were Mr Big, ex-cricketer Sobers Joban, and partner Priyank Saxena, a tobacco businessman and bookmaker, who were secretly filmed at hotels in Dubai and Delhi in our four-month investigation, according to The Sun.

Sobers played cricket for Himachal 

Sobers Joban, one of the two persons The Sun reporters spoke to, has played cricket for Himachal Pradesh. He played his junior cricket for Chamba district around 2000, and represented the state in U-22 tournament. “He’s basically from Delhi. He played his junior cricket from both Himachal and Delhi,” said a former Himachal cricketer, without wanting to be identified. He further informed that Joban was among a few cricketers against whom the state vigilance bureau had filed a case a few years back for furnishing fake domicile certificates to play for Himachal. “The case is still going on,” he said.