James Sutherland, the chief executive of Cricket Australia, has said there is “no evidence” that players from either side were involved in alleged plans to fix part of the third Ashes Test between Australia and England in Perth.
The Sun newspaper in the UK reported details of an alleged ‘spot-fixing’ scheme by publishing secret recordings of two men claiming they have someone in the Australian camp who is able to help spot-fix incidents in the Test.
Sutherland (pictured) said that he had spoken with the International Cricket Council’s anti-corruption manager, Alex Marshall, on the matter.
“What we heard from from Alex Marshall… is that there's no evidence, substance or justification based on the dossier of information the ICC's received from the news outlet, based on ICC intelligence from previous investigations — there's no substance to these allegations, or justification to suspect that this Test match or indeed the Ashes series as a whole is subject to corrupt activities,” he said. “We have absolute confidence in our players.”
Sutherland said that the timing of the report – on the morning of the first day of a potentially decisive Test match – was “a bit strange”.
The Sun, whose reporters posed as financiers for illegal London bookmakers, also reported that the individuals mentioned “four to five” Big Bash League Twenty20 matches.
Marshall said: “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.
“At this stage of the investigation, there is no indication that any players in this Test have been in contact with the alleged fixers. The allegations are wide ranging and relate to various forms (of) cricket in several countries, including T20 tournaments. We will look closely at all the information as part of our investigation.”
