LONDON: The International Cricket Council (ICC) is fighting a ‘war’ against corruption which even includes educating groundsmen as well as players and officials, its chief executive said yesterday.
“It is a war we are fighting,” David Richardson said at the launch in London of the final ICC Champions Trophy, which will be held in England next summer before the Ashes series.
“Our anti-corruption unit have their work cut out to make sure players are kept away from temptation.
“It’s everybody now, unfortunately. Everybody is susceptible -- curators, groundsmen -- our corruption unit is very aware of what it needs to do.”
Six South Asian umpires were provisionally suspended last week after an Indian TV sting alleged they were open to bribery, while five Indian cricketers were also suspended during this year’s Indian Premier League over allegations no-balls could be arranged to order.
Other tournaments including Twenty20 leagues in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have also been tainted by scandal.
The Champions Trophy, which pitches the top eight one-day nations together, is being scrapped to make way in the international calendar for a new World Test Championship from 2017.
“This tournament is part of the current rights cycle, as we call it,” Richardson said.
“Somewhere in the middle the strategy was changed as far as ICC events are concerned. We have three vibrant formats of the game and it makes sense to hold one major event for each format. “The World Cup is the pinnacle 50-over event so the Champions Trophy is the one to go.
“In 2017 there will be a World Test Championship which will be the first time we have had a Test event on a global scale.”
Meanwhile, the the world governing body hoping to capitalise on West Indies’ success in the Twenty20 World Cup.
The Champions Trophy, a poor relation of the four-yearly World Cup, will be played over 18 days with the matches scheduled for Cardiff, The Oval and Edgbaston, which will host the final on June 23. At the official launch yesterday from the towering heights of the Millbank Tower, which overlooks the Oval in south London, tournament director Steve Elworthy said the competition would feature “seriously intense cricket”.
West Indies’ thrilling victory this month in the Twenty20 World Cup final, after they had appeared to be down and out against hosts Sri Lanka, is expected to generate renewed enthusiasm among London’s Caribbean community who flocked to the Oval during their team’s glory days in the 1980s.
“In the first two games at the Oval you have West Indies against Pakistan and then you have India versus the West Indies, that’s specifically because of the Caribbean community in and around the Oval,” Elworthy said.
Richardson added: “Each team has matchwinners, there’s not a team in which you think I’m not going to bother going along and watching.”
Agencies
