ICC launches corruption probe on ‘international’ cricket team

MUMBAI, (Reuters) – The International Cricket Council’s anti-corruption unit has prevented a potential spot-fixing scandal and is investigating an international team for alleged attempts to manipulate future matches, the chief of the unit has said.

Cricket has suffered its fair share of corruption incidents and a 2010 spot-fixing scandal resulted in bans and jail terms for Pakistan fast bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir, and former test captain Salman Butt.

While revealing news of the probe, ICC anti-corruption unit head Ronnie Flanagan would not disclose details of the case as members of the international side are still being investigated.

“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 told reporters in Mumbai ahead of the World Twenty20.

“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.”