Cricketers fear for their safety after reporting corrupt approaches and do not trust administrators to deal with the issue, a study into the game’s seedy underworld has found.
Tim May, the chief executive of the Federation of International Cricketers' Association, the worldwide players' union, has released a report into how the sport is dealing with claims of corruption, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.
Australia was dragged into the ‘fixing’ controversy when sports agent Mazhar Majeed, on trial in London for fixing matches with Pakistani cricketers, claimed on the tape that Australian players would fix ''brackets'', one of five particular periods during a one-day international that bookies liked to accept bets on.
These claims were denied by Cricket Australia, and were also dismissed by a senior International Cricket Council anti-corruption and security unit investigator, Alan Peacock, in a London court.
While Australian cricketers have been cleared, May said that more needed to be done to get rid of the problem.
Players have reportedly said that the inability of the ICC's security unit to seriously deal with spot fixing remains the sport's biggest issue.
''Players need a point of trust to report approaches/suspicions,'' May wrote. ''Some international players are expressing that they don't have this point of trust, especially in tournaments such as the Indian Premier League (IPL).”
''Players will be more inclined to report approaches etc. if there is greater anonymity around the reporting process … some players won't report breaches they observe for either fear of their safety or simply because they just don't want to get involved,'' he noted.
