Cricket: War on corruption starts

LONDON - Cricket chiefs yesterday began an all-out war on match fixing by accepting all 24 recommendations in the International Cricket Council's anti-corruption unit report on match fixing.

The ICC board voted unanimously in London to give Sir Paul Condon's report its backing.

The report, issued last month, outlined a path to bring match-fixing "under control and reduced to an absolute minimum" before the 2003 World Cup in South Africa.

Players will now get extra pay to reduce the risk of temptation by bookmakers; fulltime security managers will be appointed in each country to prevent approaches to players; professional umpires will be installed and an education programme introduced.

New ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed will head the implementation of those recommendations when he takes over on July 9.

Progress will be reviewed regularly, and a first update is planned for the October 2001 executive board meeting in Sri Lanka.

"We are totally committed to addressing corruption in cricket, and our priority in implementing the recommendations is to prevent corruption taking place in future," ICC president Malcolm Gray said.

"A global infrastructure based around these recommendations can be a powerful deterrent to the corruptors who, regrettably, continue to target international cricket."

Condon said he was pleased with the board's commitment, but he feared that matches - or events within them - had been fixed since his unit was created.

"My own view is that things are still going on within matches. Sadly, I do think events have been fixed in the last year. There are a small number of matches and a small number of players involved."

He would not name people, for legal reasons.

"I think we now have a better understanding than ever as to why this happened, where it happened, the extent of it, the nature of the corruption, how people got involved, whether it's still going on, and how we can prevent it in the future."

Condon said he hoped to have stamped out "malpractice" by the time of the World Cup.

Gray said the ICC had power to suspend from membership any country or national board not taking sufficient action to fight match-fixing.

Such action would suspend teams from international competition.

He estimated that the investigation had cost the ICC $US5 million ($12 million), but said fears that cricket crowds would fall away had not been realised.

Less quantifiable were the cost to the credibility of the sport and whether children had been deterred from taking it up because of the slur on its reputation.

- NZPA

Sir Paul Condon's report