Australia, England reject cricket fixing as probe launched

Australia and England on Monday rejected fresh allegations about corruption in cricket by television news channel Al Jazeera, which claimed there had been 26 spot-fixing incidents in 15 international matches.

In a follow-up documentary to one aired earlier this year, the Qatari-based broadcaster reported on Sunday that a small group of England players allegedly cheated in seven games between 2011 and 2012.

It claimed Australian players were similarly involved in five matches over the same period, Pakistan players in three and players from other, unidentified, teams in one match.

“In some cases, both teams appear to have delivered a fix,” it said, pointing to purported recordings of a match-fixer calling in the fixes to a notorious Indian bookmaker linked to organised crime.

It alleged that the suspected fixes were usually carried out by batsmen who agreed to underperform.

Among the matches cited were England against India at Lord´s, South Africa versus Australia in Cape Town, and several games during England´s series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates.

The International Cricket Council said it had launched an investigation and would work with professional independent betting analysts.

“The ICC is committed to working to uphold integrity in cricket,” said the head of the governing body´s anti-corruption unit Alex Marshall.