Test matches featuring heavyweights India and Australia could have been among those influenced by match-fixers in the last two years, a sting operation has alleged but the two Boards have decided to wait for the completion of an ongoing ICC probe before acting on the sensational claims.
The sting has been carried out by Al Jazeera channel and the matches in question are India vs Sri Lanka (Galle, July 26-29, 2017), India vs Australia (Ranchi, March 16-20, 2017) and India vs England (Chennai, December 16-20, 2016). The allegations - pitch could have been doctored at the behest of fixers (India vs Sri Lanka), and involvement of some Australian and England players in spot-fixing the other two games.
However, no Indian player’s name has cropped up in any wrongdoing.
The Indian connection to the latest scandal is former Mumbai cricketer Robin Morris, who is now alleged to be a match-fixer. The BCCI said it would wait for the outcome of the ICC investigation before deciding on stopping his pension for a 42-match first-class career.
“We believe ICC has started its probe. Let them complete that and pronounce Morris guilty. The BCCI will only act when they have the verdict in hand,” a senior office-bearer of the Board told PTI on Sunday.
He also said that Morris, who has also played 51 List A matches in his career, is not currently involved in any BCCI projects.
“We need to check with our Anti Corruption Unit (ACU) whether Morris’ name was there on the suspect list. Secondly, he is not associated with any BCCI or state unit project currently from where we need to pull him out.