Q&A with the ICC’s Alex Marshall

Australia
ICC

The International Cricket Council have issued a short interview with the head of their anti-corruption unit Alex Marshall.

The General Manager of Anti-Corruption at the ICC has attempted to clear the air after the Sun broke a news story early on Thursday morning alleging that there were ongoing efforts to corrupt the Ashes.

The interview follows below:

1. After your initial assessment, is there any evidence of any corruption either in this Ashes match or other events mentioned by the paper?  

It is obviously very early stages and our priority on receiving everything from The Sun late last night was to consider whether the integrity of the third Ashes Test had been compromised. There is no evidence, either from The Sun or via our own intelligence, to suggest the current Test Match has been corrupted. At this stage of the investigation, there is no indication that any players in this Test have been in contact with the alleged fixers. We are now working through the rest of the information from The Sun as part of what will be a wide ranging investigation and we will map this against our own existing intelligence and live investigations to look for any corroboration or cross over. We are taking these allegations very seriously and will follow the correct processes of a thorough investigation. We will look for clear and usable evidence that proves or disproves the allegations made. This will include looking for corroboration, speaking to key witnesses and securing all relevant evidential material.’ This will not be concluded overnight and we will be working with ACU colleagues from Member countries to investigate every single allegation in full. We will not be making any comment in relation to the identity of any individual names in the dossier whilst this investigation is ongoing.

2. Has anything been referred to police and in what jurisdiction? 

Nothing has been referred as yet because we are still assessing the information. If we deem that offences have taken place in countries where match-fixing is illegal, then yes we will work with the local police and report our concerns and share information to push for prosecution.

3. Will you be looking to utilise the ICC’s new powers to download data from mobile phones?

As with any investigation, we will use all options available to us should we deem it necessary and appropriate. The ability to download data from mobile phones is one part of the investigative toolkit for us.

4. What happens next?

We are conducting a live investigation and will do that by focusing on the facts, intelligence and evidence at hand. We will be looking in detail at the allegations, looking for any corroboration of what has been alleged, either from the Sun’s own investigation or our own intelligence, and we will be examining whether there is any evidence which we can now use and take forward. We will do this without further speculation or comment.

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