CRICKET’S administrators have been warned that the Indian Premier League possesses the greatest potential for betting-led corruption since the days of the troubled Sharjah tournaments.

Anti-Corruption and Security Unit chairman Paul Condon last week told the executive International Cricket Council board meeting in Dubai that the IPL, with its millions of dollars on offer and lack of policing, was open to corrupting influences. According to the Cricket Nirvana website, Condon warned the executives that “the IPL brings with it the biggest threat in terms of corruption in the game since the days of cricket in Sharjah.”

The Sharjah tournaments during the 1980s and 90s were strongly rumoured to have been a hotbed for illegal bookmaking and match-fixing, resulting in India banning its national team from playing in the emirate in 2001.

Sources contacted by the Herald have confirmed this indeed is the sentiment held by the ACSU in regards to the lucrative Twenty20 league. Whereas the unit has tried to lessen the potential impact of corrupting influences by reducing meaningless one-day tournaments and implementing team and player rankings system, security officials feel the 20-over game is, at this stage, counter-evolutionary.

At the elite level, Twenty20 internationals are scheduled in a desultory manner, and have no points-based rankings system. In the IPL, a multimillion-dollar tournament that falls outside the jurisdiction of the ACSU, the hype and publicity have attracted a legion of fans and, inevitably, illegal bookmakers. Where they exist, the potential for corruption remains. And according to sources in the ACSU, more must be done within the IPL to safeguard the game from corruption.

The ACSU has been largely successful in restoring credibility to the game since the damaging match-fixing scandals that resulted in life bans to three international captains: Hansie Cronje, Salim Malik and Mohammad Azharuddin. Regular policing, a ban on communication devices in dressing rooms, a comprehensive player education program and the rankings system are among the methods employed to minimise the impact of illegal bookmakers and their attempts to corrupt cricketers.

Cricket Australia is seeking to take the rankings system and Future Tours Program a step further by repackaging Test, one-day and Twenty20 cricket. Chief executive James Sutherland revealed a plan to the ICC meeting whereby teams would compete in all three modes of the game over a four-year cycle, with finalists to play-off for a world championship trophy in each respective discipline at the conclusion.

“Let’s face it, generally speaking, the FTP is currently a hotch-potch of bilateral tour arrangements that, given the current volume of international cricket, produces matches that no longer linger in the memory or have lasting meaning,” Sutherland said.

He added that a quadrennial championship would provide an “unambiguous world champion in each four-year cycle [and] offered a chance to provide fans with context without damaging the essential character of Test cricket, which is the premier form of the game.”

Sutherland called on cricket administrators not to allow Twenty20 cricket to consume the 50-over game. He also urged other member nations – most notably the Board of Control for Cricket in India – to uphold the principle that international cricket is the pinnacle of the sport, not privately funded domestic Twenty20 leagues.

“Unfortunately, in my view, there is currently too much talk of ODI cricket as the problem child or the ugly duckling,” Sutherland told the ICC members forum. “The financial success of the modern game has been built on ODI cricket. We owe it to ourselves to ensure that ODI cricket continues to be a popular force in the game.”
Source: smh.com.au