Australian Cricket’s Chief Executive could be forgiven for thinking that the battle had been won against the match-fixers when the Pakistan captain and his teammates were sentenced and charged with fixing certain elements of the game, but CEO James Sutherland has insisted that the battle has only just begun.
Speaking to the press after the Pakistan cricketers Salman Butt and Mohammed Asif were found guilty of fixing the bowling in a match, Sutherland said that Australia, and the whole cricketing world, needs to be on the look-out for more cases, patterns in betting on Cricket, and that they need to be investigated as soon as there is even a rumour of match-fixing.
“It is critically important that the public has confidence in the integrity of the on-field cricket contests it sees,” said Sutherland.
“Like all other member countries, we have an obligation to implement anti-corruption measures and we are even more committed to this after hearing today’s news out of the London courts.
“Our consistent position has been that any credible evidence of corruption be investigated with vigour.”