ICC reiterates vigilance against fixing

Sir Ronnie Flanagan, right, alongside predecessor Lord Condon, who has overseen a sustained battle against illegal activities

World cricket’s new anti-corruption chief Sir Ronnie Flanagan has promised to maintain the game’s tough stance on illegal betting activity.

The police’s former chief inspector of constabulary for England, Wales and Northern Ireland is to take over as chairman of the International Cricket Council’s anti-corruption and security unit (ACSU) in July.

He will succeed former police commissioner Lord Paul Condon, who retires at the end of June after a decade in the role.

Discussing the pledge to retain a hard line against suspicious activity, Flanagan said: “I think the fans, the sponsors and the cricket-loving world deserve no less.

“I would hope to follow in the footsteps of Lord Condon in pursuing that policy of zero tolerance.”

Flanagan believes the ACSU remains as relevant as when it was first established after a series of allegations and revelations during the match-fixing scandals of 2000, although he feels the game is a lot healthier now.

He said: “There is a need for an anti-corruption unit wherever there is potential for corruption.

“Once you begin to be able to bet on who can lose an event – people can never be certain of winning an event but they can be certain at times of losing it – with the large amounts of money in the game there is always potential for corruption.

“Therefore I think it is right the ICC have an anti-corruption unit, hopefully to prevent it, but where it takes place to investigate it, root it out and bring to justice those involved.”

But he added: “Because of the great work under Lord Condon that has been carried out, I think the game is in a much better place than it was 10 years ago.”

The ACSU also confirmed today they had been conducting an ongoing investigation into Pakistan’s performances on their recent disastrous tour of Australia.

Pakistan failed to win a single match during their two-month tour following which the Pakistan Cricket Board conducted their own investigation.

That resulted in seven players being sanctioned, most notably former captains Younus Khan and Mohammad Yousuf who were banned indefinitely.

Pakistan's miserable tour of Australia this winter saw them lose every international match and collapse into infighting

That has, however, not been the end of the matter with a leaked video from the PCB investigation yesterday revealing concerning levels of distrust between senior officials and players.

In the video, the performances of some players were questioned and a further parliamentary commission in Pakistan today responded by calling three senior officials before it on Monday.

In the wake of those revelations today, Condon revealed the ICC had already been investigating the tour themselves, with the aid of the PCB.

Condon said the investigation had so far found the reasons for Pakistan’s poor performances were a result of a “dysfunctional” team, however, they were still looking into more sinister undertakings.

“There has been an ongoing investigation since the time, because it is a series that worried us,” Condon said at a press conference at Lord’s.

“We spent a lot of time talking to the players and the PCB but part of the challenge is to find where the solid fact is, because what you've got there is a lot of internecine strife within the team and within Pakistan politics, with rival camps making allegations.

“We are satisfied that that was a totally dysfunctional tour from a Pakistani point of view, and that dysfunctionality in the dressing room led to players not performing well, and maybe making them potentially underperform deliberately.

“What we still need to establish is whether that was because rival camps wanted to do down captains or potential captains, or whether it was something more serious, doing it for a financial fix.

“We are working very closely with the PCB but at the moment it is a flurry of allegation, rather than any hard fact.

“The investigations at the time suggested it was more about a dysfunctional team, rather than match-fixing. But it is a live inquiry.”

The Pakistan parliamentary commission today called for PCB chairman Ijaz Butt, Australian tour coach Intikhab Alam, and former captain Younus to appear before them regarding the performances of the tour.