Zug/London/Dubai: European Cricket League AG recently announced an increase in manpower, process, monitoring and investigation capabilities to protect the integrity of European cricket events and these enhanced measures have resulted in immediate and severe actions being taken.
News broke on Friday that arrests have been made in relation to a betting ring in Jaipur, India regarding alleged betting in European cricket matches. Recent investigations have also led to dozens of social media accounts being accessed, including the seizure of laptops, mobile phones and contact lists. Some of these betting syndicates can lead to corruption in cricket and it is being investigated whether participants in European cricket matches were involved in any corruption.
“Protecting and educating European cricketers, clubs, Federations and officials from corruption on the field remains our highest priority. Off the field, we are also making use of the latest in big data analytical software tools to help us fight to keep cricket clean. When we have sufficient data and evidence, we pass it onto the police. T10 is about making the game faster and more entertaining, so as soon as batsman are blocking balls and not showing intent to score, blatantly underperforming and wastefully bowling significant amounts of extras, alarm bells start to ring for our investigative team.” said Daniel Weston, Founder of the European Cricket Network.
“It takes time during and after the review of matches to find potential offenders, but we will leave no stone unturned in our endeavours to uncover corruption and uphold cricket’s integrity in Europe. Along with the news today of arrests, further and fresh investigations are already underway from recent matches that have taken place. We have a committed team of people monitoring each match and tracking betting markets and other data feeds for irregularities. This includes a variety of elements which is used to analyse specific passages of play, players and teams, which together alerts us to moments in the match to question and look closer at. We will seek evidence and pursue investigations, liaising with the relevant police body with our findings concerning any reports, irregularities, concerns and suspicions. Punishments will be severe, including police criminal proceedings which may result in jail, and we will not hesitate to ban and black list players, clubs, officials and participants as we strive for corruption free cricket. Our goal is to make and keep European cricket clean. We will take every step necessary and not deviate from this goal.”
European Cricket Network (ECN) has previously announced that it has bolstered its own internal anti-corruption team, while also continuing to partner with the International Cricket Council (ICC) Anti-Corruption Unit. The partnership provides process driven oversight to ensure the highest level of integrity is demonstrated in and around the European Cricket League (ECL), European Cricket Series (ECS) and in alignment with ICC Member Federation Anti-Corruption Codes of Conduct for their own organised events which are broadcast by the European Cricket Network.
For all European Cricket Series, European Cricket League and /or European Cricket Network events, we encourage immediate reporting of suspicious approaches or behaviour to the appropriate Federation. All information is treated confidentially and taken seriously, offering an opportunity to voluntarily, directly and anonymously provide information about fraudulent actions and breaches of ethics.
Details or reports should be sent to acu@ecl.team or via WhatsApp to +49 175 8363126 or directly to the ICC Anti-Corruption Unit through the ICC ACU Hotline: +971565458909 (mobile operated 24/7 for calls, SMS or WhatsApp) or contactACU@icc-cricket.com
