CA rejects corruption allegations against players

Cricket Australia (CA) has denied all the corruption charges levied against their players by Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera in its recently-aired documentaries.

The governing body asserted that they had conducted a proper review of the claims made in the documentary, but found nothing against the players.

The statement came after Al Jazeera released its second documentary on alleged corruption in cricket. The documentary claimed that around 15 international matches had been subject to spot-fixing in the 2011-12 period.

"Cricket Australia takes a zero-tolerance approach against anyone trying to compromise the integrity of the game, and to suggest anything otherwise is unsubstantiated and incorrect," cricket.com.au quoted CA CEO James Sutherland, as saying.

"Prior to the broadcast of Al Jazeera's documentary, Cricket Australia's Integrity Unit conducted a review of the latest claims by Al Jazeera, from a known criminal source, and, from the limited information provided by Al Jazeera, our team have not identified any issues of corruption by any current or former player, including in relation to Big Bash League matches," he added.

Expressing full confidence in the Australian players, Sutherland said that they would continue to work with the International Cricket Council's (ICC) Anti-Corruption unit to ensure the integrity of the game.

"We have full confidence in our players in also protecting the game, and we are working closely with the Australian Cricketers' Association (ACA) to keep them informed of any developments," Sutherland said.

"The materials we have been given have been referred to the ICC's Anti-Corruption unit and we will continue to work with them in order to ensure the integrity of the game," he added.

Apart from bringing the international matches under the ambit of corrupt activities, the second documentary by Al-Jazeera also incriminated matches in the Big Bash League and one Test in 2016-17 where Australia hosted Pakistan.

Earlier, three Hong Kong players namely ---Irfan Ahmed, Nadeem Ahmed and Haseeb Amjad were found guilty of breaching the ICC Anti-Corruption Code and were provisionally suspended.

The allegations were related to "fixing or contriving or otherwise influencing improperly or being a party to an effort to fix or contrive or otherwise influence improperly, the result, progress, conduct" of matches.

Former chief selector of Sri Lanka Cricket Sanath Jayasuriya was also charged by the ICC for two corruption-related charges that were subsequently refuted by the former batsman.