On Al Jazeera's match-fixing allegations
Whether you were busy watching Pakistan thrash England in the 1st test or watching Chennai Super Kings claim their 3rd IPL title, it was probably hard to miss the claims made by Qatar's TV channel Al Jazeera. In a 53-min video available on Youtube, a journalist acting as a businessman talks to some individuals who allege that they can help to fix sessions of international matches or doctor the pitch at Galle Stadium in Sri Lanka.
Here are some points which made me skeptical about the 'investigation':
1. The video's title includes 'match-fixers', while the article uses the term 'match-fixing', yet neither provides any details of a particular match which was fixed.
When I found the video, I looked at the title and assumed that at some point - there will be a match where the creators will allege match-fixing occurred. They do talk about doctoring of pitches and spot fixing (referred as session fixing), but that is a completely different level of corruption as compared to match fixing. I had to watch the video over and over again to ensure I didn't miss anything. Obviously, my intention isn't to say that doctoring pitches or spot fixing is not a big deal - but those headlines certainly seem misleading without any information to back the claims.
2. Repeated claims of a 100% guarantee of matching to a script or "Total Control"
Aneel Munawer mentions right at the beginning of the video that the script that he mentions will happen repeatedly. Robin Morris and his associate also mention that the players will be puppets even though they claim only a few players will be involved to carry out the fix. Cricket is a team game and for a few individuals to carry out such an accurate fix is extremely tough.
In fact, this was an issue faced by former South African skipper Hansie Cronje back in 2000. He along with 4 other teammates were working with bookies to fix an ODI game. Cronje told the bookies that South Africa would score 270 runs against India in a Nagpur ODI. However, Lance Klusener, who wasn't part of this plan, played an aggressive knock to take the total well past 300. Therefore, the chances of a 100% guarantee with merely 2-3 players involved seems very bleak to me.
3. The businessman receives a wide variety of information without any monetary commitments
At the end of the video, the person playing the role of the businessman, walks out of his hotel room declares 'there is no money' and that they are investigating match fixing. And yet, by that point - not only does the businessman know about two specific cases of spot fixing but he has been told the names of 5 international players involved - 3 from England and 2 from Australia. All of this - without having spent a single cent.
When a business makes money based on the information they have - why would someone from that group simply pass that information along with the names of the sources for free? Additionally, the journalist is shown details of a proposed T20 league based in Dubai just by promising contact with some interested investors. In most legal businesses - client names, business models and partners are kept confidential or at least restricted, yet we are to believe that a businessman had access to all this information after a handful of meetings.
In the end, I walked away feeling that the journalists are trying to turn chicken into chicken soup.
Having said all that, it would be remiss to not talk about the cricketers and groundsmen shown on camera and what could possibly the extent of corruption if there is any substance to these claims. Here are my thoughts:
1. Involvement of Galle groundsman/curator
Tharanga Indika, the assistant manager and curator of Galle International Stadium is seen talking on camera about doctoring pitches with Robin Morris, a former ICL player and alleged fixer. The pitch curator has the ability to ensure high scoring games or low scoring ones and this shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who follows the game. But they potentially do this in collusion with outsiders (potential fixers) is the troubling fact.
Interestingly though, Indika or the player with him (Mendis) never explicitly mention that they prepared a pitch as per someone else's instructions in the video, so for all we know it might be just a case of them talking about how pitches are prepared. Even if there was collusion, the magnitude of the collusion can vary from selling information (similar to what Mark Waugh and Shane Warne did) to preparing pitches as per an outsider's instructions.
This still needs to be investigated and Al Jazeera's investigators don't give any indications that these individuals have similar contacts in other stadiums - so for all we know, this might be a one-off case.
2. Presence of former international and domestic cricketers
The Al Jazeera investigation shows a number of former international and domestic stars including Hasan Raza and Robin Morris. While Morris hasn't played any cricket of note in the last decade, Raza has played domestic cricket in Pakistan as recently as beginning of 2018. Therefore, his connections with some domestic players is quite likely but you would need to stretch your imagination to assume they have contacts with high-level international talents. Even Jeevantha Kulutunga, the former Sri Lanka Women's Coach is shown in the video saying he can play to a script. However, he hasn't played any competitive cricket of note since 2012.
The other player who appears with him, Dilhara Lokuhettige, has not played any competitive cricket for 2 years now. If these videos are authentic, it appears to be a case of some old cricketers well past their primes, planning to take part in a fraudulent league - which is definitely far from saying match-fixing is prevalent in international cricket. In fact, at some point in the video, Morris himself mentions that some B or C level players will be involved, but not A-level players. Whether these B or C level players are current cricketers or former is not clear.
Obviously, Al Jazeera will need to provide the materials, documents and proof collected by them to ICC and the relevant boards for further investigation. Hopefully, they will thoroughly look at the evidence and take necessary actions - but I very much doubt this 'investigation' causing too much headache for ICC or any of the boards mentioned.