Sir Ronnie Flanagan, the chairman of cricket's anti-corruption unit (ACU) and a former senior police officer of Britain, has defended his unit following the fall out from the recent Chris Cairns trial and revealed the steps being taken by his unit to strengthen its effectiveness. He said that ACU has gone through 450 intelligence reports so far this year.
Flanagan revealed that ACU is close to agreeing a MoU with the National Crime Agency that will enable intelligence to be shared between police forces in the United Kingdom. Similar MoUs are also close to being signed with police agencies in South Africa and India as the ICC recognises its corruption unit lacks the investigatory powers necessary to bring to justice complex fixing rings. .
“We want MOUs with investigative bodies wherever world cricket is played. We have it already in New Zealand and Australia and we are in the final stages in drawing them up to be signed within the next month or so with South Africa, India and the National Crime Agency in the UK. Our job is primarily about prevention. We as a unit must be seen as the players’ friend and exist to prevent the players from falling in the clutches of the predators.”
The ACU is the process of expanding with three new appointments. A head of prevention to improve its education programme, a director and co-ordinator of investigations and a senior analyst. The latter two appointments have been made to improve the gathering and analysis of information between the ACU in Dubai and the individual anti-corruption units set up by some Test playing nations as well as police forces around the world. Flanagan declined to comment on the findings of the jury in the Chris Cairns case, which ended recently with the former New Zealand all-rounder acquitted of perjury and attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Some of the major cricket corruption cases in recent times:
- August 2010
Three Pakistan players were revealed by the News of the World to have agreed to be paid to bowl no-balls during the Lord’s Test. Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir were all later jailed.
- January 2012
Essex cricketer Mervyn Westfield admitted accepting £6,000 to underperform in a county match. He was given a four-month prison sentence. Pakistan cricketer Danish Kaneria was banned for life for corrupting Westfield.
- February 2013
Mohammad Ashraful was banned for eight years for spot-fixing in the Bangladesh Premier League. The Anti-Corruption Unit was criticised for allowing a game it knew to be corrupt to go ahead.
- March 2013
Delhi police arrested Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Anklet Chavan after an undercover operation. The son-in-law of N Srinivasan, the chairman of the ICC, was also arrested. The case badly damaged Srinivasan, who is no longer involved in cricket politics.
- March 2013- May 2014
New Zealand batsman Lou Vincent was reported for approaching fellow players to fix. He was banned for life by ECB. His evidence was the basis of a Met Police prosecution of Chris Cairns for perjury. He was cleared after an eight-week trial in London
