News of spot fixing taking place has become increasingly common since the past few years. Although it doesn’t determine the overall result of the game, it still affects a part of it. Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit has unveiled evidence of corruption occurring at increasing levels in international cricket through a documentary which was released on Sunday. They reported at least two dozen fixes in 15 international matches.
The ICC refuted these claims and instead, questioned the broad casters refusal to share the raw footage.
Evidence without context
The evidence from 2011 and 2012 revealed that a small proportion of England’s players were involved in spot fixing in seven matches; Australia players in five matches and Pakistan players in three. It was also found that sportsmen from other teams carried out spot fixing in at least one match. In a few cases, both teams have proven to deliver a fix. The allegedly fixed matches include England versus India at Lords Cricket Ground, South Africa versus Australia in Cape Town and several matches during England’s series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
It is reported that world famous batsmen were involved and they purposely agreed to underperform. Multiple matches appear to include more than one fix. Specifically, 26 fixes were revealed in 15 matches.
Al Jazeera exposed the Mumbai-born, Dubai based, alleged match fixer, Aneel Munawar. They have claimed that its dossier includes pictures of Munawar and his associates communicating with players such as Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Umar Akmal during the 2012 T20 World Cup. The channel, however, clarified that there is no suggestion that these players were involved in any wrongdoing.
What we know so far
‘The Munawar Files’ reveal that the match-fixer is part of a powerful criminal syndicate and has been fixing international matches since 2010 which include six test matches, six one day internationals along with three T20 World Cup games. Al Jazeera’s investigators have obtained telephone recordings that clearly exhibit Aneel Munawar ringing in details of fixes in 15 international matches to a notorious Indian bookmaker involved in the organized crime.
Al Jazeera also discovered that the sports governing body, ICC, was aware of Munawar since 2010, yet they only issued a global appeal after they discovered that the channel was creating this explosive documentary.
