Al Jazeera has claimed that it has dossier showing photographs of alleged match-fixer Aneel Munawar and his associates "hovering near, and purportedly talking to" international cricket players such as Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Umar Akmal during the T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka in 2012.
While, it has posted some of these alleged picture with a report on spot fixing on its website, the channel made it clear that there is no suggestion that these players were involved in any wrongdoing.
Top players did spot-fixing!
However, the report published on Al Jazeera website, has claimed that some other top international players were involved in spot fixing.
The report stated that "the evidence, from 2011 and 2012, points to a small group of England players allegedly carrying out spot-fixes in seven matches; Australia players in five matches; Pakistan players in three, with players from other teams carrying out spot-fixes in one match."
The report based on Al Jazeera's investigative documentary released on Sunday (October 21) claims that Aneel Munawar, an alleged match-fixer on ICC's radar, had been involved in 26 spot-fixing instances in six Tests, six ODIs and three World T20 matches between 2011-12,.
Titled 'Cricket's Match Fixers: The Munawar Files', the documentary claims fixed passages of play in seven matches by England players, five matches by Australia players, three matches by Pakistan players, and in one match by players from another country.
The channel's report further claimed that the matches in which fixes were allegedly carried out included an England-India encounter at Lord's Cricket Ground, a South Africa-Australia match in Cape Town and several games during England's series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Munawar clicked with Virat, Rohit
Munawar, who had been identified as a prominent match-fixer in Al Jazeera's first documentary 'Cricket's Match-Fixers' that aired in May this year, is supposedly a member of the 'D-Company' controlled by Dawood Ibrahim.
The report claimed that "our dossier also includes photographs of Munawar and his associates hovering near, and purportedly talking to, international cricket players during the T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka in 2012."
"There is no suggestion that these players were involved in match-fixing," it added.
Apart from Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma the report claimed to gave pictures of Munawar with Indian players like Suresh Raina and Lakshmipathy Balaji and Andy Bichel, the Australian coach.
According to the report, other photographs show Umar Akmal, a Pakistani player, receiving and peering into a bag allegedly given to him by a Munawar associate, though the photographs do not show whether Akmal left with the bag.
ICC demands footage
The International Cricket Council, who has demanded to see the footage, had previously hit out at Al Jazeera for failing to share unedited footage from their investigations into corruption in cricket.
"We will again take the contents of the programme and any allegations it may make seriously and will investigate fully," said Alex Marshall, the general manager of the global governing body's anti-corruption unit.
England and Wales Cricket Board's Integrity Team and Cricket Australia have dismissed the allegations of spot-fixing by their cricketers.
