Australian cricket unhappy at recycling of corruption claims

New allegations of spot-fixing against "current and former Australian players" are set to be aired by Qatar-based television news network Al Jazeera in a follow-up to the investigative documentary aired earlier this year.

Cricket Australia has confirmed the allegations relate to "historical matches from 2011", a year in which the national team concluded an Ashes series, then took part in the 50-over World Cup, bilateral tours of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and South Africa, then home matches against New Zealand and India.

However, both Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) are criticising Al Jazeera for refusing to share its evidence on incidents of match-fixing.

ACA Chief Executive Alistair Nicholson said in a statement released today “enough is enough when it comes to people making unsupported accusations that have the ability to unfairly tarnish players’ reputations.”

Al Jazeera is preparing its second documentary alleging match-fixing in cricket after an earlier program linked two un-named Australians to corruption claims.

However, Cricket Australia Chief Executive James Sutherland said the governing body’s integrity unit had reviewed the latest Al Jazeera claims made by “a known criminal source”.

He advised “from the limited information provided by Al Jazeera our team have not identified any issues of corruption relating to current or former Australian players

“We have handed all material over to the ICC Anti-Corruption Unit to enable them to fully investigate and we will continue to co-operate with the ICC.

“We urge Al Jazeera to provide all un-edited materials and any other evidence to the ICC Anti-Corruption Unit.”

The International Cricket Council has reportedly launched an appeal to find one remaining suspected match- fixer from Al Jazeera’s initial documentary.

The ICC advised that the alleged fixer, known as Aneel Munawar, remained unidentified but Al Jazeera had indicated he would be central to its second documentary.

ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit’s General Manager Alex Marshall added “we have identified every other person in the original documentary and have spoken to a number of them in connection with match-fixing, including those who are not deemed to be participants under our Anti-Corruption Code

“However the true identity of Aneel Munawar remains a mystery.

“He plays a significant role in the program yet enquiries with law enforcement and immigration sources have not identified or located him.”

Marshall said Al Jazeera’s lack of co-operation had slowed ICC investigations , concluding “we are aware that there is a second documentary in the offing, this time based on historical recordings between a fixer, suspected to be Munawar and bookies in India.

“Based on what we already know, we have engaged the services of an independent betting analysis company to examine the claims made about particular matches.”