New Delhi: International Cricket Council remains concerned over the threat of match-fixing in Indian Premier League, ICC general manager Dave Richardson said.
ICC’s Anti Corruption Unit chief Paul Condon told ICC annual conference in Dubai early this month that IPL was biggest threat to the game in terms of corruption since days of cricket in Sharjah.
Board of Control for Cricket in India secretary Niranjan Shah and IPL chief Lalit Modi said strict measures to check corruption in Twenty20 tournament were already in place, but ICC are still worried.
IPL could be target for match-fixers because of huge sums of money being invested in the tournament, according to Richardson. “We are concerned,” Richardson told newsmen.
“IPL is first domestic competition which has attracted such huge interest and it’s inevitably going to attract interest of match-fixers and people like that. It’s just fact there is lot of betting going on in cricket, as so much money passing hands, inevitably temptations are going to be there to try and get players involved. There is certainly no criticism intended for IPL or BCCI.”
Richardson said concern was mainly due to fact that IPL was packed with young players who do not go through ICC education process and he pleaded with BCCI to raise awareness. “It is first time a domestic competition is attracting this interest and you’ve got players who don’t necessarily go through ICC education process.—Agency