On Tuesday, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has launched an appeal to identify one alleged match-fixer, known as Aneel Munawar, who was exposed in the Al Jazeera’s latest aired documentary on fixing in cricket.
On this May, the gentlemen’s game cricket got another hard hit with match-fixing allegation after the Qatar based media company, Al Jazeera, revealed their multiple sting operations which have revealed some big match and spot-fixing stories and their process in the cricket matches, including in the international cricket too.
In that documentary, an Indian bookmaker, known as Aneel Munawar, was seen who claimed three English cricketers and two Australian cricketers were involved in the spot-fixing. However, ICC hasn’t identified that alleged bookmaker yet and has launched an open request to help them to identify and locate him.
The General Manager of ICC Anti-Corruption Unit, Alex Marshall said, “We have identified every other person in the original documentary and have spoken to a number of them in connection with match fixing, including those who are not deemed to be participants under our Anti-Corruption Code. However the true identity of Aneel Munawar remains a mystery. He plays a significant role in the programme, yet enquiries with law enforcement and immigration sources have not identified or located him.
“As such we are appealing to the public or anyone from within the cricket family to contact us with any information that will lead us to identify and locate him. Police investigations often use such an appeal to locate people of interest and we are exercising the same approach.”
While Marshall has claimed that Al Jazeera has not been cooperative in their investigation, he further added that they have made good process in the investigation.
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Marshall said on that, “The absence of any cooperation from the broadcaster has slowed the investigation, but to date we have made good progress in identifying people of significant interest including people already of interest to the ACU. We have been able to discount a number of claims made in the programme and continue to pursue other aspects. We will provide a full update at the conclusion of the investigation.
“We are aware that there is a second documentary in the offing, this time based on historical recordings between a fixer, suspected to be Munawar and bookies in India. As with the first programme, we will investigate any claims made in a full and thorough manner and we take any allegations of corruption, historical or contemporary, extremely seriously. Based on what we already know, we have engaged the services of an independent betting analysis company to examine the claims made about particular matches.
“As with the first programme we have, and will continue to ask for the cooperation of the broadcaster. Access to the raw, unedited footage enables us to build a complete picture around the claims in the documentary and ensure our investigation is as fair and thorough as possible.”
Meanwhile, Cricket Australia (CA) has revealed that they haven’t identified yet any issues of corruption relating to their current or former Australian players.
James Sutherland, the CA CEO said, “Cricket Australia’s Integrity Unit have 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 relating to current or former Australian players.
“We have handed all material over to the ICC Anti-Corruption Unit to enable them to fully investigate and we will continue to cooperate with the ICC. It is important to reiterate that Cricket Australia and the ICC take a zero-tolerance approach against anyone trying to compromise the integrity of the game.”
