France Cricket faces allegations of fraud and corruption

Cricket recently made a much-awaited return to the Olympics. The beautiful sport will be played at Los Angeles Olympics in 2028. This will help cricket reach out to a wider audience. There are a lot of countries that are playing cricket at the moment but not many know about them. If these countries make rapid strides, it will only bode well for the sport.

When cricket was beginning to expand its reach in Europe, unfortunate news from France popped up and it won't please the cricket enthusiasts if it proves to be true. France Cricket, which is an associate member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) is currently facing serious allegations of fraud and corruption. The ICC stated, "We're looking into it," while responding to a report in the French media, which asserted that France Cricket has fabricated matches and submitted falsified reports to the cricket's governing body.

"Instead of the scheduled women's match, the men's under-19 semi-final - which should have ended far earlier - was taking place. Once the game ended, around 3:30 pm, both teams packed up and left. The women's second-division game apparently did not follow. Three days later, France Cricket rubber-stamped the match as having taken place and posted the results on their website," France 24 said in a report under the sub-head of Phantom matches as quoted by Cricbuzz.

There is an allegation that clubs do not have women's teams in real but they pay for licenses and fake score sheets on the internet.

"Most clubs cheat, they pretend to have a women's team. They pay for licences and then they fake score sheets online. We have refused to fake matches and that means that even if we qualify we're likely to never be able to get a promotion." the coach of a club has been quoted in the report as saying.

These are absolutely fake and baseless allegations: President of France Cricket

Prebou Balane, the president of France Cricket, has brushed aside the allegations, terming it as baseless and done by a British-origin journalist just 'to get some attention'.

"These are absolutely fake and baseless allegations from a British-origin journalist trying to get some attention, especially with myself being of Indian origin and at the helm for the past 10 years, they haven't been any part of the system for a while for cricket in France.

"As Cricket recently has been included in the Olympics, if you try and understand, the timing couldn't be better. Now, they are just trying to get some traction. We have already been in touch with ICC and our Lawyer is taking all the required measures," Prebou Balane, the president of France Cricket, told Cricbuzz on Thursday.