Alex Marshall, General Manager ICC ACU, said, 'We have identified every other person in the original documentary and have spoken to a number of them in connection with match fixing, including those who are not deemed to be participants under our Anti-Corruption Code'
Dubai: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has launched an appeal to find the one remaining suspected match-fixer from a recent documentary aired by Al Jazeera TV channel. ICC has also hired the services of an independent betting analysis company.
The appeal is part of an extensive investigation by the ICC Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU), and the alleged fixer, known as Aneel Munawar, remains unidentified. The programme makers have indicated that this man will now be central to a second documentary.
In a TV sting operation conducted by Al Jazeera, Munawar was caught making claims on having fixed sessions of Test matches involving India. Former Pakistan Test cricketer Hasan Raza and ex-India domestic player Robin Morris were also seen in the video.
Now, ICC has claimed that “true identity” of Munawar remains a “mystery”.
Alex Marshall, General Manager ICC ACU, said, “We have identified every other person in the original documentary and have spoken to a number of them in connection with match fixing, including those who are not deemed to be participants under our Anti-Corruption Code.”
“However 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,” Marshall added in a statement on Tuesday.
The global cricket governing body wants the public to provide them with any information about Munawar.
“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. Police investigations often use such an appeal to locate people of interest and we are exercising the same approach,” Marshall said.
He also said that the investigation was “slow” because the TV channel did not co-operate.
“The absence of any cooperation from the broadcaster has slowed the investigation, but to date we have made good progress in identifying people of significant interest including people already of interest to the ACU. We have been able to discount a number of claims made in the programme and continue to pursue other aspects. We will provide a full update at the conclusion of the investigation.
“We are aware that there is a second documentary in the offing, this time based on historical recordings between a fixer, suspected to be Munawar and bookies in India. As with the first programme, we will investigate any claims made in a full and thorough manner and we take any allegations of corruption, historical or contemporary, extremely seriously. Based on what we already know, we have engaged the services of an independent betting analysis company to examine the claims made about particular matches,” he added.
Marshall said that ICC would request Al Jazeera to provide them with unedited footage.
“As with the first programme we have, and will continue to ask for the cooperation of the broadcaster. Access to the raw, unedited footage enables us to build a complete picture around the claims in the documentary and ensure our investigation is as fair and thorough as possible,” the ICC official said.
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