Vigilance regarding corruption in cricket to be increased with T20 boom

With the exponential rise of T20 cricket all over the globe, there lies a proportional requirement of policing and vigilance regarding corruption according to the head of the international players’ union has warned. The need for greater monitoring comes at a fragile moment in cricket, as top-notch players are lured and tempted by big-money Twenty20 deals, Australia’s cricketers locked in a long-running contract dispute with their own board, and the Test format struggling for relevance outside of the Ashes.

The executive chairman of the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA), Tony Irish believes that the higher authorities of the game have somewhat managed to eradicate fixing at international level, but it is the standards of anti-corruption infrastructure in the new domestic leagues which concerns Tony Irish.

In February 2017, Nasir Jamshed was provisionally suspended by the Pakistan Cricket Board’s Anti-Corruption Code as a part of an ongoing investigation of Pakistan Super League 2017. Apart from Jamshed, Sharjeel Khan, Khalid Latif, Mohammad Irfan and Shahzaib Hasan were also accused of spot-fixing in the Pakistan’s domestic T20 league. Apart from Pakistan Super League, The Indian Premier League, the Bangladesh Premier League, South Africa’s Ram Slam Challenge have all been tainted with marks of spot-fixing.

Monitoring at the domestic levels concerns Irish

“The traditional market is pretty well regulated. But the new league market is pretty unregulated, and that includes corruption. Players are moving all over the place, and there is varying degrees of how corruption is dealt with in different countries” claimed FICA executive chairman Tony Irish according to Daily Mail.

“All the leagues have anticorruption codes, and that’s good. But there’s a lot more to dealing with corruption than a code. The education of players is fundamental to that. In some countries, there’s no education. Unfortunately, these leagues are seen as different animals and not part of the overall structure.” added Irish.