ICC says TV channel Al Jazeera not co-operating on corruption probe

Dubai: The ICC on Sunday claimed Al Jazeera is not co-operating enough into its investigation on the spot-fixing allegations made by the TV channel involving national teams of India, Australia and England.

Test matches featuring heavyweights India, Australia and England could have been among those influenced by match-fixers in the last two years, the channel's sting operation has alleged.

"We have been in ongoing dialogue with the broadcaster which has refused our continual requests to cooperate and share information which has hampered our investigation to date," the ICC said.

"The content of the programme, is of course useful to the investigation, but I would now urge the production team to provide us with all un-edited and unseen evidence they are in possession of, to enable us to expedite a thorough investigation," it said further.

The governing body of cricket reiterated that it is taking the allegations very seriously, having watched the entire sting operation which was aired earlier in the day.

"The ICC has now had the opportunity to view the documentary into corruption in cricket and as we have previously stated, we are taking the contents of the programme and the allegations it has made extremely seriously.

"A full investigation led by the ICC Anti-Corruption Unit, working with full cooperation from all Member countries identified in the programme, is now underway to examine each claim made," the ICC added.

The sting has been carried out by Al Jazeera and the matches in question are India vs Sri Lanka (Galle, July 26-29, 2017), India vs Australia (Ranchi, March 16-20, 2017) and India vs England (Chennai, December 16-20, 2016). The first and third Tests mentioned were won by India while the Ranchi encounter ended in a draw.

The allegations made are that the pitch could have been doctored at the behest of fixers (India vs Sri Lanka), and involvement of some Australian and England players in spot-fixing the other two games. However, no Indian player's name has cropped up in any wrongdoing.