Appeal launched by ICC to locate match-fixer from Al Jazeera Documentary

The documentary revealed the Galle International Cricket Stadium's assistant manager and curator, Tharanga Indika assuring Robin Morris that he can alter the conditions of the pitch as per the requirement. It was mentioned in the documentary that the Test held in 2016, was pre-planned in terms of conditions of the pitch. The Australian team, who were playing against Sri Lanka, lost the match by 229 runs. They were bowled out for 106 and 183 in two innings respectively and managed to play a total of 85 overs only.

“In that five-day match, we prepared the wicket poorly without using a roller. In that way, we made a spinning wicket,” Indika was caught telling in the documentary.

Further, the documentary displayed an Indian bookmaker, holding allegations against three English and Australian players, blaming them for spot-fixing during Test tours of India, back in 2016-17. The match-fixer against whom the appeal has been launched is known as Aneel Munawar and to this date he is unidentifiable. ICC has asked people to provide any information gathered on him.

“We have identified every other person in the original documentary and have spoken to a number of them in connection with match fixing, including those who are not deemed to be participants under our Anti-Corruption Code. However the true identity of Aneel Munawar remains a mystery. He plays a significant role in the programme, yet enquiries with law enforcement and immigration sources have not identified or located him,” Alex Marshall, General Manager of ICC ACU said.

“As such we are appealing to the public or anyone from within the cricket family to contact us with any information that will lead us to identify and locate him. Police investigations often use such an appeal to locate people of interest and we are exercising the same approach,” he added.

ICC has claimed that since the documentary has been aired, Al Jazeera has refused to give their full cooperation to the investigation. They refrained from sharing the unedited video of their sting operation. However, Al Jazeera network has fired back, stating that ICC does not understand the working of investigative journalism. They are now contemplating the release of the second part of the infamous documentary.

“The absence of any cooperation from the broadcaster has slowed the investigation, but to date we have made good progress in identifying people of significant interest including people already of interest to the ACU. We have been able to discount a number of claims made in the programme and continue to pursue other aspects. We will provide a full update at the conclusion of the investigation,” Alex Marshall said.

“We are aware that there is a second documentary in the offing, this time based on historical recordings between a fixer, suspected to be Munawar and bookies in India. As with the first programme, we will investigate any claims made in a full and thorough manner and we take any allegations of corruption, historical or contemporary, extremely seriously. Based on what we already know, we have engaged the services of an independent betting analysis company to examine the claims made about particular matches,” he added.

On the other hand, Cricket Australia has freed its players from any kind of corruption allegations.

“Cricket Australia’s Integrity Unit have conducted a review of the latest claims by Al Jazeera, from a known criminal source, and, from the limited information provided by Al Jazeera, our team have not identified any issues of corruption relating to current or former Australian players," James Sutherland, the CA chief, said.

“We have handed all material over to the ICC Anti-Corruption Unit to enable them to fully investigate and we will continue to cooperate with the ICC. It is important to reiterate that Cricket Australia and the ICC take a zero-tolerance approach against anyone trying to compromise the integrity of the game,” he added.