Sports
Alex Marshall’s war on corruption
Rex Clementine in Dubai
With the immense popularity of T-20 cricket and mushrooming franchise leagues all over the world, the game of cricket was under the threat of corruption. When the International Cricket Council was on the lookout to rope in someone to head its Anti Corruption Unit, they went for a high profile Scotland Yard police officer in Alex Marshall.
Marshall (59) is someone who is held in high esteem in the UK. Since joining the ICC, he has gone about his business meticulously and 22 individuals (five Sri Lankans) had been charged for breaching the Code of Conduct by the Anti Corruption Unit. What is important is that of all individuals the ICC charged, except one all others either accepted sanctions or the tribunal found them guilty. You can assume that the corruptors have been kept at arm’s length to a large extent, but eagle-eyed Marshall doesn’t take the foot off the gas. His war on corruption in cricket is very much fiercely focused.
“The participants who have been charged include franchise team owners, team managers, coaches and players,” Marshall said in an interview with a group of Sri Lankan journalists.
“Our effort is to keep the corruptors away. One of the ways to do it is to find out how the corruptors work. If they are going to approach you how are they going to do it? What are your weaknesses? What would you do in social media? Would you like to go to night clubs? Do you like going to casinos? Will 10,000 Dollars work or 30,000 Dollars work?
ICC’s vibrant Anti Corruption Unit has done well to educate players and Marshall gave a glimpse to the public how corruptors work during our interaction. “The most common way is that players get a strange social media exchange which goes like ‘I would like to sponsor your bat’ or ‘we are having an event and you can come along’ or ‘there is a franchise tournament coming along why don’t you come to Dubai and meet the owners’.
A few years ago, the Anti Corruption Unit had been heavily focusing on Sri Lanka investigating quite a few cases and Marshall was pleased with the way players have responded. “In Sri Lanka players have become very good at spotting and understanding how the corruptors are likely to get at you. It is hard for corruptors to get to the players if they phone us in the first sniff when they sense something dodgy. But if the corruptors go through an ex-player, whom they (current players) get on with and trust, they will get a conversation with them.”
It has been a real embarrassment for Sri Lanka as a nation to have so many corruption investigations going on but Marshall commended the tremendous improvement the country is making in fighting corruption.
“There is a big improvement. At one point it was 22 live cases. All I ever said was that is the highest number of investigations among all the cricket nations. I never said that Sri Lanka is the most corrupt.. But that has tumbled. Sri Lanka is not the leading number of investigations at the moment by a long way. We have seen a significant difference. As we have got through all those cases. Players have got better and better in reporting any sort of suspicions.”
One of the good things done by the previous government is making corruption in sport a criminal offence and a person can go to jail. Harin Fernando as Sports Minister put in a lot of effort to introduce the bill to the Parliament in 2019 and it was passed without any delay.
“Sri Lanka brought in legislation to make match fixing a crime. Top effort! They are the first country in the sub-continent to bring in that legislation. I think that message has gone across to most people. Anyone who is trying to ignore that legislation goes to prison. In England people have gone to prison for fixing cricket matches. In Sri Lanka, we have seen a shift where it’s considered a serious thing with the Police and government getting involved. The government has taken it seriously. My view is that playing group is switched on. The playing group is a good group. If someone tells them to play badly, they’ll tell us. They have been coming along to tribunal and giving evidence which is what they are supposed to do. Across the world of cricket, people are quite scared of doing it. They don’t like doing it. But in Sri Lanka, players have started doing it. So there is a massive improvement in Sri Lanka.”
Franchise cricket seems to be the most vulnerable of all formats with unknown owners coming through and there is a strong need for proper vetting of these entities. SLC initiated the Lanka Premier League last year and the dates for the second edition has been already announced this year.
“What we do know is where a franchise tournament goes wrong, it is very often through the franchise owners. So if we get the wrong people in charge of a team, you will get corrupt approaches. We have been working with IPG and SLC to say that we give them a list and ask them to go through this with every franchise owner. That process is going on at the moment. We don’t give anyone a clean chit. But if they share the details with us, we will say that person is a person of interest to Anti Corruption Unit. But they have to do the due diligence. SLC sanctioned it and it has been played under their code. IPG is the company that is running it. They both have to do diligence properly,” Marshall noted.
With legal implications involved, ICC has to be cautious about the process that they follow from the moment an individual is under the spotlight to where he is sanctioned. Marshall explained the process. “We name someone when someone is charged. We have investigated certain individuals in Sri Lanka for two years but we don’t mention the name to anyone. We don’t even tell the Sri Lankan board. When we complete an investigation, I might say that’s all the evidence we have gathered. Looks like they may be involved with something but I don’t have enough to recommend charges. Or when we have lots of evidence, we send a report to our lawyers saying we recommend that a person is charged for breaching the code. If the general counsel agrees, he consults with other people and we send a letter saying that we believe you have breached the code in these places. You can now go to a tribunal or you can accept and agree a sanction. That’s the first time we ever publicize that person’s name. We publish a statement but we don’t give any comments. Then we tell the whole story when the tribunal is finished or we reach a point where a sanction has been agreed.”
SLC has two individuals now working full time on their Anti Corruption Unit and there’s scope to recruit more people to make it a vibrant one given the challenges the sport has faced in the last five years. “The boards that are better off have the biggest and strongest Anti Corruption units. So Australia, England and India have pretty big anti corruption departments. Sri Lanka has two people. Zimbabwe has one, part time. We have a good relationship with them all. Pakistan actually has a good anti corruption unit too. It is variable across the world. It’s about what they can afford to spend on having people working in those roles.”
Several ex-Sri Lankan cricketers have featured in unsanctioned cricket events all over the world and Marshall warned the dangers of getting involved in these competitions. “To run a league it has to be approved by the cricket board. If you are an associate member and if it is going to involve some international players – more than four –then you need to get ICC approval to run the event. There have been events that we have refused to sanction. Then it is called unsanctioned cricket. If any player takes part in unsanctioned cricket, they can be banned from cricket. Mauritius had an unsanctioned league last year. Some Sri Lankan players went and played unsanctioned cricket. Those players when they came to thr T-10 tournament, they were thrown out. They were told you have been playing unsanctioned cricket without an NOC. Therefore you are thrown out of the tournament.”
After Parliament passed legislation, a police unit was established at Sugathadasa Stadium to investigate corruption in sports. ICC has been educating local police officers how to go about things. “We have sent two people to Sri Lanka to work with them. My chief investigator and another investigator spent a few days training them. We shared with them how we approach because they are not coming from a sports corruption background. They come from a police background. We come from a police background as well but we have been doing corruption in sport for many years. We have been working with them. Where we lost was because of COVID. We spent less time working with them than what we wanted. As soon as we can travel, we will be in Sri Lanka more often.”
The first truly heavyweight clash of this expanded T20 World Cup format comes freighted with both history and subplots. A rematch of the 2010 World T20 final at Kensington Oval, the match pits Jos Buttler’s defending champions – who are aiming to become the first team to retain the trophy – against the Australian winning machine, victors at the 2021 edition and current world title-holders in Test and ODI cricket. And that’s before you throw in the Ashes for afters.
Already there is added pressure on England, after the rain in Bridgetown led to a share of the points in their opener against Scotland (and that having conceded 90 runs from 10 overs without taking a wicket in a tepid bowling display). Lose to their oldest rivals and it will leave their Super 8 prospects open to being waylaid by the perils of net run-rate calculations, or worse.
The Scotland match was the third abandonment in five suffered by England, after a rain-affected home series against Pakistan, which has clearly hampered their readiness for this campaign after almost six months without playing T20 together. It does not take much for a side to click in this format – and England looked in decent shape when they did get on the field against Pakistan – but Buttler will be anxious for things to go their way on Saturday, if only to avoid further questions referencing the team’s disastrous ODI World Cup defence last year.
Australia, under the laidback leadership of Mitchell Marsh would love nothing more than to add to the English sense of jeopardy – having helped bundle them out of the tournament in India on the way to taking the crown. Their head to head record is less impressive in T20 however, with England having won six of the last seven completed encounters, as well as that 2010 final.
Despite a wobble with the bat, Australia avoided mishap against Oman earlier in the week, the experience of David Warner and Marcus Stoinis shining through in difficult batting conditions. Surfaces in the Caribbean – not to mention those games staged in the USA – have already had teams scratching their heads; rather than the “slug-fest” England had prepared for, following a high-scoring tour of the Caribbean in December, it looks as if boxing smart may be the way to go.
Speaking of Warner, this could be the last time he faces up against England in national colours – and another match-winning contribution would likely reduce the chances of them meeting again in the knockouts. On the other side of the card is Jofra Archer, fresh from an emotional maiden outing at Kensington Oval and ready to take on Australia for the first time in any format since 2020. Can Mark Wood fire up England’s campaign, as he did during last summer’s Ashes? Will Pat Cummins be back to harass the old enemy once again? Seconds out, it’s almost time to rumble.
Cummins is set to return after being rested for the Oman game, which saw Mitchell Starc leave the field with cramp. Starc is understood to be fine and could keep his place – which would likely see Nathan Ellis miss out. Marsh is still not fit to bowl, with Australia likely to continue with the allrounder combination of Stoinis and Maxwell to give them cover.
Australia (probable XI): David Warner, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh (capt), Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Josh Inglis (wk), Tim David, Pat Cummins, Nathan Ellis/Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood
The one change England may consider is Reece Topley coming in for Wood, with the expectation that there will be some rotation among the seamers through the course of the tournament.
England (probable XI): Phil Salt, Jos Buttler (capt & wk), Will Jacks, Jonny Bairstow, Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Chris Jordan, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Reece Topley/Mark Wood
[Cricinfo]
Once is coincidence, twice is a clue, and three times is proof.
To paraphrase Agatha Christie, that is the narrative around South Africa’s meeting with Netherlands at this T20 World Cup.
The Dutch beat South Africa at the 2022 tournament and ended their semi-final hopes in a match where South Africa appeared to be sleep walking, and then beat them again at the 2023 ODI World Cup, where they exposed South Africa’s vulnerability in the chase. If they to do the treble, not only will Netherlands take the lead in Group D, but they will offer conclusive evidence of the threat they pose to Full Members, especially South Africa.
Of course, it will take some doing after South Africa’s opening performance against Sri Lanka, where they reduced their opposition to their lowest T20I total and chased it down in fairly straightforward fashion thanks to the most stable middle-order of their white-ball era. In Aiden Markram, Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller, South Africa have bankers and big-hitters and, for this match, they also have the advantage of experience. They’ve already played at Eisenhower Park, and have first-hand knowledge that run-scoring doesn’t come easily;Klassen said they are prepared to use their “cricket brains” and play “smarter cricket”.
But the conditions could be good news for Netherlands, who are not naturally a line-up of big hitters and build their innings on a foundation of turning ones into twos. In other words, they tend to take a slightly more conservative approach to batting, which may work well here, but they’ll be wary of the uneven bounce of the surface and will have to come up with plans to counterattack especially against South Africa’s seamers. Their own bowlers were exemplary in Dallas and will look to build on that performance against a line-up that will likely be more proactive than Nepal’s, but who they have managed to keep quiet not once, but twice in the past. Third time’s the charm, they say.
Anrich Nortje’s stunning return to form against Sri Lanka means South Africa may not have to tinker with the bowling combination, and Gerald Coetzee and Tabraiz Shamsi may have to wait their turns to get a game. The batting line-up should be unchanged, with no space for Ryan Rickelton yet.
South Africa: Quinton de Kock (wk), Reeza Hendricks, Aiden Markam, Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), David Miller, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Ottneil Baartman, Anrich Nortje
Conditions in New York may tempt Netherlands to include an extra seamer and they have Kyle Klein in their squad. But it could come at the expense of a shortened batting line-up and they may not want to risk that.
Netherlands: Michael Levitt, Max O’Dowd, Vikramjit Singh, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Scott Edwards (capt, wk), Bas de Leede, Teja Nidamanuru, Logan van Beek, Tim Pringle, Paul van Meekeren, Vivian Kingma
[Cricinfo]
Nuwan Thushara’s last over brought Sri Lanka screaming back into the match,as he first bowled Rishad Hossain, and then nailed Taskin Ahmed in front of the stumps with a pinpoint swinging yorker. This left Bangladesh eight wickets down, with 12 runs still to get.
However, the experienced Mahmudullah was at the crease for Bangladesh, and despite some further nervy moments, pushed Bangladesh across the line off the last ball of the 19th over.
But this was a match chiefly decided by Bangladesh’s own outstanding bowling. Mustafizur Rahman was the best among them, using shorter lengths and his cutters efficiently, to claim figures of 3 for 17. Rishad Hossain’s three-for through the middle overs also kept Sri Lanka quiet.
Mustafizur was instrumental in Sri Lanka’s downward spiral through the middle overs, which culminated in a crash-and-burn end. Ultimately, their inability to find boundaries, or even rotate strike against good Bangladesh bowling resulted in their downfall. A score of 125 for 9 always seemed poor on a decent pitch, even if their bowlers made a match of it in the end.
Brief scores:
Bangladesh 125 for 8 in 19 overs (Towhid Hridoy 40, Litton Das 36; Dhanajaya de Silva 1-11, Nuwan Thushara 4-18, Wanidu Hasaranga 2-32, Matheesha Pathirana 1-27) beat Sri Lanka124 for 9 in 20 overs (Pathum Nissanka 47, Dhananjaya de Silva 21; Tanzim Hasan Sakib 1-24, Taskin Ahmed 2-25, Mustafizur Rahman 3-17, Rishad Hossain 3-22) by two wickets
[Cricinfo]
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