ICC World Cup 2019 | No current player under corruption scanner, says ACU Manager
The ICC’s ACU General Manager Alex Marshall has stated that no current international player is under the corruption scanner at present. ICC, for the first time, has incorporated a dedicated anti-corruption manager who will travel with each team during the World Cup starting May 30.
Cricket has been marred with corruption and fixing scandals multiple times in the past thereby forcing the ICC’s (International Cricket Council) ACU (Anti-Corruption Unit) to go ahead with the decision to appoint an anti-corruption officer who will travel with each of the ten teams from the start to the end of the World Cup.
This has been done in order to ensure a corruption-free tournament. The ICC ACU General Manager Alex Marshall has stated that no current player is under scanner for corruption and has also disclosed that few administrators have been charged.
"Over the last 18 months, we have charged 14 or 15 people. None of those are current players. The people we have charged are administrators, senior administrators, board members, coaches, ex-players and an analyst. These are people on the edge of the squad, not people currently among the player group," Marshall said in a press conference on Friday, reported PTI.
"In addition to the people we have charged, we have also disrupted more than 30 corruptors who are outside our code, but we nevertheless pursued them wherever they are in the world to make it hard for them to operate as corruptors anywhere near cricket," he added.
Three Pakistan cricketers, including a former skipper, were banned by the governing body in 2010 for their involvement in match-fixing in Test matches in England. This was the last major corruption scandal to rock international cricket and now with the showpiece event also to be held in England, ICC has made all efforts to ensure a corruption-free tournament.Â
"When corruptors look at the World Cup they see a very well organised, professional, well governed and well protected event. This is a very tough event for corruptors to come near. Of course they (corruptors) would love to, the yields would be high but our job throughout the World Cup will be to make sure they don't get near it,” the former police officer explained.
It is learnt that players have been made aware of the threats that accompany them and how to avoid them, as pointed out by Marshall.
"The advantage we have at this World Cup is that I can guarantee everyone in every squad understands what the threat is, and what they should be looking out for, and they know how to keep themselves away from this problem," the 57-year-old said.Â
The idea behind the appointment of ACU managers has been to make the teams and players comfortable and enable them to develop a good rapport in order to report any suspicious activity.
"These (managers) are my people who work all around the world and usually someone who has been working for that team over the last year anywhere, has been on tours and has a good relationship with the players and staff," Marshal asserted.
"We have developed a much closer relationship with the players and having them with across the whole World Cup just perpetuates that good relationship. And one of the indicators that we know it is working is a big increase in the number of reports coming in from the players,” he added.
The GM also did not rule out the fact that the corruptors will be lurking around despite all security provisions.
"The threat is active and constant, but once the players have a good awareness and are well protected and a tournament is well run and cricket itself becomes resistant, that makes it harder and harder for the corruptors and maybe they will go elsewhere,” he signed off.