ICC on the verge of identifying mastermind of global fixing in cricket

In their fight against corruption in the game, the International Cricket Council (ICC) is all set to take a huge step by publicly naming and shaming the fixers. ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) is gearing up for a new type of fight against the fixers as the latter take help of new methods like the use of cryptocurrencies, burner phones, and messaging apps that auto-delete in their attempt to earn money by maligning the gentlemen’s game.

According to a report, ICC’s ACU believes that most cases around the world can be linked back to 10 or 12 individuals working as bookies in India. The investigators are presently in Delhi and are interviewing a fixer. Alex Marshall, the general manager of the ICC’s ACU, has said that a mastermind is on the verge of being outed.

“Most of these jobs will be started by 10 or 12 corruptors we know very well. Even though at the start of an investigation those people will not feature, and there will be a new person acting as an intermediary making approach to a player, when we dig into it we will find it is one of that group of corruptors using a different name or new phone,” Alex Marshall, the general manager of the ICC’s ACU, was quoted as saying by Telegraph Sport.

“We will look to have that person named as an excluded person and then anyone in cricket who has had fair warning and associates with him will be in trouble. That is not the purpose of it but if we have a number of allegations identifying one person we will start the process of excluding them. We are doing the first one or two right now,” he added.

ICC’s name and shame policy

The governing body of the game has decided to publicly name and shame the fixers in order to curb the fixing menace in the game. The corruptors will have their name, mugshot, and aliases uploaded on the ICC website. The ICC will also use article 2.4.9 for this purpose that will help them term the corruptors as ‘excluded persons’. Once players are made aware of these ‘excluded persons’, they must steer clear of them.

Marshall also revealed how the bookies are using burner phones (cheap phones with prepaid minutes of usage and bought without a contract) to avoid being tracked, while communicating and making payments. He compared the use of technology to the arms race during the Cold War. The ICC officials also mentioned apps on which messages disappear on their own.