London – Cricket is once again facing up to the spectre of corruption with the recent one-day international series between West Indies and Pakistan set to be investigated over allegations of wrongdoing.
Suspicious betting patterns were identified during the low-profile five-match series, which concluded last Thursday, while unusually slow run-rates during certain overs followed by bursts of high scoring have ‘set alarm bells ringing’, according to industry experts.
Concerns have been raised, in particular, around the tied third match of the series played in St Lucia a week ago last Friday, as well as the final game, which resulted in a last-ball win for Pakistan last Thursday. The second ODI, which saw Pakistan fail to score a run off the bat in the first five overs after being set 233 to win, will also be looked at.
One betting website reported unusually large sums of money – said to run into several millions of pounds – being wagered between innings on a tied result during the third ODI after the West Indies were set 230 to win from 50 overs.
Pakistan appeared to be cruising to victory, with their opponents still requiring 45 off the last 21 balls and only three wickets left. But with the tail-enders scoring at more than four times the rate of most of their teammates, West Indies scraped the unlikeliest of ties.
Field placings for the final over, when No 11 Jason Holder and fellow tailender Kemar Roach crashed 14 off six balls from Wahab Riaz, will be scrutinised by officers of the ICC Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (Acsu), along with a failed run-out bid off the last delivery. Television commentator Ian Bishop, the former West Indies fast bowler, said at the time: “There is no way you can convince me, whatever happens to this last ball, that Wahab Riaz and Misbah ul Haq have had this field right to the length they have been trying to execute. There is no one who can convince me of that. Totally wrong.”
The fifth ODI, which saw Pakistan win by four wickets off the final ball, is also to be scrutinised. Acsu officers will also analyse patterns on spread-betting sites around the first 18 balls of the Windies innings when only one run was scored.
“There were suspicious betting patterns on a betting exchange,” said betting expert Ed Hawkins, the author of Bookie, Gambler, Fixer, Spy. “A suspicious pattern, simply, is a flood of money wagered on an outcome just before it happens. There were some noticeable examples of this during the West Indies-Pakistan series. In the tied match, a weight of cash arrived on the tie market before Pakistan’s innings.”
Another passage of play, between the 29th and 34th overs, when star batsmen Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels were at the crease, will also be analysed in an effort to understand why just two runs were scored from five overs before 16 were hit off the 35th over.
Betting is illegal in India, so there is no paper or electronic trail for bets. This means bookies and fixers can launder money easily.
The average amount bet on an ODI is £15 million, with legitimate online sites such as Betfair and Sporting Index offering markets on anything from the number of runs scored in a five-over ‘bracket’ to the number of wickets a player will take in the series. The five-over ‘brackets’ are especially vulnerable to manipulation, with prior knowledge of a player’s intentions potentially worth millions of pounds.
Illegal gambling syndicates often have a network of ‘employees’ – with the majority of activity, but by no means all, emanating from the Middle East and India. Crucial to any syndicate intent on fixing matches is access to players. There are several ways of ‘grooming’ players, including lavishing gifts, offering them cash incentives or even, as has been the case in some cases in India, employing beautiful women to initiate contact between the player and the syndicate.
Bookies will try to befriend players and, despite stringent ICC rules about player access, have even been known to book hotel rooms long in advance of a tour and paying corrupt hotel employees to ensure they stay on the same floor as the team.
The captain of the team is seen as the most important when it comes to carrying out a fix. The captain is in charge of all on-field strategy such as field settings and bowling changes and influences the outcome of a game.
So-called ‘court-siders’ have been targeted this season in an effort to identify possible fixers who are passing real-time information back to bookies from games, in order to manipulate markets before the nine-second time-delayed broadcasts show play ‘live’.
Acsu investigators, who have been criticised in the past for failing to root out deep-seated corruption in cricket, will analyse betting patterns around those overs amid concerns that anyone with prior knowledge could have made a certain profit in the market for run predictions, which are usually based on totals in five-over ‘brackets’. The same process will occur for the second ODI.
“If I was presented with this level of information, I would want this series investigated,” said ECB information manager Chris Watts, who is responsible for anti-corruption in domestic cricket in England. “There are classic signs (of wrongdoing).”
In May 2008, Samuels was suspended for two years. The West Indies Board said he had “received money, benefit or other reward which could bring him or the game into disrepute”. They looked into charges that Samuels had passed on team information to a bookmaker during a one-day series in India in January 2007, which he denied.
Key to any investigation will be to establish a link between illegal bookmakers, normally working on behalf of billionaire businessmen in India or the Middle East, and the players. The Acsu have the power to access a player’s bank records and analyse mobile phone data. Deleted text messages can be accessed through improved data retrieval methods. “Players know we are on the look-out for wrongdoing, but they also know it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack,” said an ICC source.
The ICC and their constituent governing bodies have introduced education programmes in recent years to warn players of the dangers of getting involved with the murky underworld of black-market betting and reminding them of the potential punishments if they are caught.
Strict limits on the processing of mobile data at county grounds have also been implemented in an effort to stop ‘court-siders’ passing real-time information on to bookies. Recently, two individuals were ejected from a T20 game between Northants and Somerset at Wantage Road after being caught by ECB anti-corruption officials phoning live commentary to the sub-continent.
The nine-second time delay between live action and the TV broadcast in India is enough for ‘market manipulation’.
‘Danger Zones’ include the Indian Premier League, the Bangladesh Premier League and county cricket. – Daily Mail
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