In what can put Australian cricket under further scrutiny, spot-fixing allegations levelled at current and former Australian players will be aired by television news network Al Jazeera. It will be a follow-up to the investigative documentary aired earlier this year.
In recent developments, Australia had already confirmed that all the allegations go back to the year in 2011 when the side played the Ashes. This was followed by participating in the World Cup, bilateral tours of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and South Africa. Australia also hosted matches against New Zealand and India. James Sutherland, chief executive of CA has already said that integrity unit investigation had been conducted into the claims.
"We are aware of the new investigative documentary by Al Jazeera into alleged corruption in cricket," Sutherland said.
'Lack of cooperation from Al Jazeera'
"Since the broadcast of Al Jazeera's first documentary, the ICC Anti-Corruption Unit has been conducting a thorough investigation into the claims made, however, this has been hampered by a lack of cooperation from Al Jazeera," he further added.
Sutherland further said that CA have handed all the material over to the ICC Anti-Corruption Unit and they would cooperate with them.
He further informed that Cricket Australia's Integrity Unit reviewed the latest footage released by Al Jazeera but have not identified any corruption-related claims which can be linked to any current or former Australian players.
The ICC have already placed a request for the identification of Aneel Munawar, who is seen in the footage making claims about being the organiser of spot-fixing for illegal betting syndicates. However, according to Alex Marshall, head of the ICC's anti-corruption unit, all attempts to trace and identify Munawar has been unsuccessful so far.
"The true identity of Aneel Munawar remains a mystery. He plays a significant role in the programme, yet enquiries with law enforcement and immigration sources have not identified or located him. As such we are appealing to the public or anyone from within the cricket family to contact us with any information that will lead us to identify and locate him," Marshall said.
