Glen Maxwell says he was ‘shocked and hurt’ after Al-Jazeera match-fixing allegations against him
Glen Maxwell said he was ‘shocked and hurt’ after the match-fixing allegations against him shown in the documentary released by Al-Jazeera. He stated that he had been pre-warned about the documentary by Cricket Australia before it was aired and left any legal response in organizations’ hands.
Glen Maxwell said he was left ‘shocked and hurt’ to be implicated in a match-fixing documentary that called into question his maiden Test century, but admitted events in the IPL have left him "unsure" about their legitimacy. Al Jazeera aired allegations in May, shining the spotlight directly on last year's drawn Test between Australia and India in Ranchi as one of several to be questioned across the world. In the documentary, a criminal claimed that two unnamed Australian batsmen were paid off to bat slowly during a period of play in the Test.
However, the documentary did not identify any players by name but blurred the footage that made Maxwell easily identifiable, and the Victorian said that it was certainly very hard to take.
"I was shocked. I was a bit hurt by it as well. To have these allegations about your involvement in a game where you've only got happy memories about it, great memories … I still remember the feeling after hugging Steve Smith after getting my maiden Test hundred. To have that tarnished by these allegations was pretty devastating and
Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland said that there was no credible evidence linking Australian players to corruption and CA called on the broadcaster to turn over evidence to the ICC's anti-corruption investigators.
"Cricket Australia and the ICC take a zero-tolerance approach against anyone trying to compromise the integrity of the game," Sutherland said in a statement at the time. "Neither the ICC or Cricket Australia is aware of any credible evidence linking Australian players to corruption in the game."
Maxwell revealed that he had been pre-warned about the documentary by Cricket Australia before it was aired and left any legal response in the organisations' hands.
"If (the documentary) mentioned any names, they would be taken down pretty heavily,” Maxwell said. “They didn't mention any specific names but did basically say the time of the game, which was my involvement. You could see it was the gear that I was using, and there wasn't anyone else using that gear in that game. That was certainly very hard to take."
Maxwell said he had a good relationship with cricket's anti-corruption officials, having previously had long conversations during his time at the IPL.
"I've been very honest with them (anti-corruption officials) the whole way through with the IPL," said Maxwell. “If I've ever seen anything untoward I always sat down with them, had a long coffee and just talked about everything to make sure nothing ever, ever comes back to me. If there's anything slightly amiss, I always give them a call and make sure they have every bit of evidence they can
Maxwell was captain of Kings XI Punjab in the 2017 IPL edition, his best season since his breakout 2014 campaign. He led Kings XI in 14 matches, with 310 runs at a strike-rate of 173.18. He played this year's tournament with Delhi Daredevils. The documentary also claimed the pitch for the 2016 Galle Test between Sri Lanka and Australia was doctored. In that Test, 18 Australian wickets fell to spin bowling as the tourists failed to bat more than 85 overs across both innings.