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HomeSportICC working on stricter criteria to grant official status to T20 leagues 

ICC working on stricter criteria to grant official status to T20 leagues 

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ICC has also launched 32 investigations in last 12 months & found 5 international captains received proposals for spot-fixing.
Dubai: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has undertaken a review of the guidelines under which it declares cricket approved or disapproved in the wake of the proliferation of Twenty20 and similar leagues around the world.

The major concern is that some of these leagues are being played purely for betting purposes, legal and illegal, and that unsavoury elements previously kept out of the game were getting their tentacles into the sport.

The anti-corruption unit of ICC has also launched 32 investigations over the last 12 months and found that five international captains received proposals for spot-fixing.

When asked if there was a need for stricter criteria to be applied before a T20 league was granted official status, ICC chief executive David Richardson said, “The answer to that is yes.”


“We are already reviewing our regulations around the whole process. The intention is to introduce minimum standards,” he added.

“This is not as a barrier to entry but simply a mechanism to better control who is involved in these leagues, who is putting them on [organising them]. and minimise the risk of them being corrupt,” Richardson said.

Readers of ThePrint will recall an investigation into the Mauritius T20 Cricket League, reported on 24 September, that highlighted the involvement of players contracted to different countries taking part in an unsanctioned tournament.

The head of the ICC’s anti-corruption unit, Alex Marshall, a former chief constable and chief executive of the College of Policing in Great Britain, also stressed the threats that face the modern game.

“The corruptors love the explosion of T20 tournaments,” Marshall said. “They have suddenly given them a host of new opportunities to try and influence these events. These events are a great way to develop and grow cricket to new regions but they are also new opportunities for the corruptors,” he added.

“They (corruptors) particularly like the T20s and, if they can, they will try and get into the franchises; they will try and get the financial backing; they will try and gain influence over the T20 league,” he said.

“And if they can’t get into a T20 league, how about designing your own corrupt tournament? And we’ve seen examples of corruptors create an entire event only for the corruption,” he added.

‘India’s illegal betting markets to blame’

The ICC is believed to be tracking more than 20 domestic T20 leagues they believe are played purely for the purpose of betting. Marshall also said that the number of cases handled by the anti-corruption unit was constantly on the rise.

“There have been 32 investigations launched in the last 12 months, eight involving players as suspects,” he added. “Five of them involve administrators or non-playing personnel. Three of these individuals have been charged. Five international captains have also reported receiving approaches to spot-fix.”

While Marshall would not name the captains, both for legal reasons and because some investigations are still open, he did clarify that four of these were in charge of full-member teams.

Marshall explained that the illegal betting markets in India were rge driving force behind attempts to bend players, but that the actual corrupt approaches and practices were not limited to any one region.

“The corruptors are mostly Indian bookies, and the type of bookies who are looking to interfere and corrupt the game of cricket for their profit, because obviously if they can influence an element of the game for the whole time, they increase chances of making more money through bookmaking,” said Marshall.

“So the corruptors take their chances. Corruptors love captains,” he added, “Think back in history to some of the most famous corruption cases in cricket and you’ll know that the corruptors chase captains because obviously the captain gets to control bowling changes, the approach, fielding changes, etc.”

But it is not as though a bookie sitting in a  shady den somewhere is directly approaching international cricketers, who have now been well educated on the dangers that they face.


Also read: India’s U-19 cricket captain under scanner for playing unauthorised Mauritius league


“Corruptors need intermediaries,” said Marshall, “They look for the in-betweens — a trusted person on the edge of a team or a squad or a player.”

“So a person who a player knows for years suddenly has a funny conversation with him in the hotel lobby,” he added.

“Or an administrator, someone players trust, got to know over the years, has their number, talks to them over WhatsApp, suddenly the players receive a strange WhatsApp like: Are you interested in a bit of work?” he explained, “I have a friend here who can give some money, we both can get rich, don’t worry, no one’s gonna know.”

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