Sports / Cricket
Was the Zimbabwe Australia cricket match fixed: ICC
01 Mar 2011 at 11:18hrs | Views
The ghost of spot fixing started to hurt the mega event of International Cricket Council (ICC), i.e. the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, as the apex cricket body looked in no mood of being complacent on spot fixing as the match between Australia and Zimbabwe is now under its scrutiny.
Australian openers failed to take on toothless bowling attack of Zimbabwe in the initial ten overs and only scored 28 runs and only managed to reach 53 at the end of 15th over which certainly surprised many cricket followers.
ICC is carrying out a quiet review of the match and not ready to give any detail about its investigation. "They are taking no chances at all and all matches are under the scanner for possible indications that any spot-fixing has taken place," source said.
However, the Australian team coach Tim Nielsen has defended the slow batting of Aussies openers against Zimbabwe and termed it as a game plan. He said, "I thought they played well in game one.
Everyone had this perception that they went slowly. But if Zimbabwe were going to be competitive against us, they needed to take early wickets with their spinners. We're playing the way we think is the right way to play."
It is also important to mention here that former Pakistan skipper Rashid Latif already expressed his fears of spot fixing in the world cup matches especially in the matches between cricketing giants and minnows.
"It is obvious that the real competition will only start from the quarter-final stage. This means it encourages bookmakers to try to corrupt players to indulge in white collar spot-fixing crime in the group matches," Latif said.
"The formation is such that even if a top team loses a match or two this really will not stop it from qualifying for the quarter-final. Take for example Group A. How can the ICC expect teams like Kenya or Canada to cause any upset and it is obvious Zimbabwe is weaker compared to Pakistan, Australia, Sri Lanka and New Zealand? My fear is this format and formation only encourages spot-fixing and it is difficult for anyone to identify such things," he added.
Australian openers failed to take on toothless bowling attack of Zimbabwe in the initial ten overs and only scored 28 runs and only managed to reach 53 at the end of 15th over which certainly surprised many cricket followers.
ICC is carrying out a quiet review of the match and not ready to give any detail about its investigation. "They are taking no chances at all and all matches are under the scanner for possible indications that any spot-fixing has taken place," source said.
However, the Australian team coach Tim Nielsen has defended the slow batting of Aussies openers against Zimbabwe and termed it as a game plan. He said, "I thought they played well in game one.
Everyone had this perception that they went slowly. But if Zimbabwe were going to be competitive against us, they needed to take early wickets with their spinners. We're playing the way we think is the right way to play."
It is also important to mention here that former Pakistan skipper Rashid Latif already expressed his fears of spot fixing in the world cup matches especially in the matches between cricketing giants and minnows.
"It is obvious that the real competition will only start from the quarter-final stage. This means it encourages bookmakers to try to corrupt players to indulge in white collar spot-fixing crime in the group matches," Latif said.
"The formation is such that even if a top team loses a match or two this really will not stop it from qualifying for the quarter-final. Take for example Group A. How can the ICC expect teams like Kenya or Canada to cause any upset and it is obvious Zimbabwe is weaker compared to Pakistan, Australia, Sri Lanka and New Zealand? My fear is this format and formation only encourages spot-fixing and it is difficult for anyone to identify such things," he added.
Source - Byo24News
