• Australia, England deny fresh corruption claims

    Cricket Australia and the England and Wales Cricket Board have denied new corruption allegations made by television news channel Al Jazeera.

    Al Jazeera has claimed there have been 26 incidents of spot-fixing across 15 international matches and, in a follow-up documentary to one broadcast earlier this year, alleged some England players cheated in seven games between 2011 and 2012.

    Al Jazeera has also implicated Australians in five other fixtures over the same period, and Pakistani players in three others.

    England against India at Lord’s and South Africa vs Australia at Newlands are among the matches cited by Al Jazeera. They also listed several fixures during England’s series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates.

    ‘The International Cricket Council is committed to working to uphold integrity in cricket,’ said ICC anti-corruption unit general manager Alex Marshall.

    ‘As you would expect, we will again take the contents of the programme and any allegations it may make seriously and will investigate fully.’

    The ICC is still investigating claims made during the original Al Jazeera documentary, which alleged corruption by Australian and England players during 2016 and 2017 matches. Those claims were dismissed by both nations.

    ‘Cricket Australia takes a zero-tolerance approach against anyone trying to compromise the integrity of the game, and to suggest anything otherwise is unsubstantiated and incorrect,’ Cricket Australia chief executive officer James Sutherland reiterated on Monday.

    ‘We have full confidence in our players in also protecting the game. From the limited information provided by Al Jazeera, our team have not identified any issues of corruption by any current or former player.’

    The England and Wales Cricket Board said in a statement: ‘Whilst the limited information we have been given by Al Jazeera is poorly prepared and lacks clarity and corroboration, it has been properly assessed.

    ‘Analysis of this by the ECB integrity team has cast no doubt on the integrity or behaviour of any England player, current or former.’

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    Jonhenry Wilson