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International team under investigation for corruption - Sir Ronnie Flanagan

by Manuj Sharma Monday 7 March 2016

ICC Anti Corruption and Security Unit chairman Sir Ronnie Flanagan during a press conference.

©REUTERS / Action Images

The chairman of the International Cricket Council's (ICC) Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) , Sir Ronnie Flanagan revealed that an international team was under investigation for attempting “manipulate” games in the upcoming ICC World Twenty20.

Flanagan refused to divulge further details as the investigation is currently ongoing but stated that a few individuals had attempted to manipulate events and facilitate betting on such events.

“It will be very difficult for me to talk about specific details about an ongoing case, but quite recently we have a reason to believe that members of a particular team have intentions to manipulate events in forthcoming matches,” Flanagan said at a media interaction in Mumbai ahead of the World T20.

“This was an international team but I am not going to go into any details because it is still under our investigation.

“Certain individuals, we believed, had intention to manipulate events to facilitate betting on those events.”

Further elaborating that the ACU has initiated action on the suspected individuals, Flanagan was confident that they were able to foil the attempts to manipulate events.

“Just like police have to make these operational decisions - in terms of how long or how far you allow something to develop or when do you intervene - we decided in this particular case we would intervene immediately.

“We would focus on individuals who we suspected, but we would remind the entire squad of all their responsibilities.

“I am certain that our action in that particular case did indeed avert the intention of just one or two individuals, and we have taken action in relation to those individuals and we will be taking further action.”

Elaborating on the measures taken to facilitate the reporting of corrupt approaches, Flanagan stated that the ACU has established two hotlines for the ICC World T20.

"I am talking about two different hotlines.

“There is a hotline for this tournament (ICC World T20) which is a mobile phone of one of anti-corruption officers and he has been directed that phone will be on 24-7 and that's something we did at the last World Cup (in Australia and NZ) and that's something we do at major tournaments.

"In addition to that, we have a hotline that goes back to the office in Dubai.

“So when the tournament is over and somebody comes by some information they like to pass on, there this is the hotline they can dial on our website.

“We give it to all the players, support staff, officials.

“They carry it in wallets just like cards.

“Even if the office in Dubai is not manned, there would be a recorded message.”

The 2016 ICC World T20 gets underway with the group stage on 8th March and the first game will be played between Hong Kong and Zimbabwe in Nagpur.