ICC anti-corruption chief Alex Marshall says 'no evidence' to back up Ashes spot-fixing claims

World cricket’s anti-corruption boss Alex Marshall says initial investigations show the current Ashes Test has not been affected by match fixers.

A report in The Sun newspaper today claimed that ‘spot fixing’ — altering parts of a match — could take place to influence illegal betting markets for the Third Test, which started here this morning.

After Marshall held a conference call with ECB chief executive Tom Harrison, Cricket Australia boss James Sutherland and ICC chief executive David Richardson he said that, at this stage, he believes the Perth Test is clean.

“From my initial assessment of the material, there is no evidence, either from The Sun or via our own intelligence, to suggest the current Test has been corrupted,” said Marshall, the ICC’s new general manager of anti-corruption. “At this stage of the investigation, there is no indication that any players in this Test have been in contact with the alleged fixers.

The report, in which journalists posed as financiers seeking entry into the illegal betting market, said no current England player had been referenced by would-be fixers.

Sutherland, meanwhile, said he had no doubts about the integrity of any Australia player in this match.

The Cricket Australia chief executive said: “From what we’ve heard, there’s no substance to these allegations or justification to suspect this Test or indeed the series as a whole is subject to corrupt activities.

“He [Marshall] also went on to say there’s no evidence, substance or justification to suggest that any player from either side or match official from the ICC or Cricket Australia or the ECB are in any way under suspicion or have been contacted by alleged fixers.

“To that extent I know I speak from the ECB’s perspective and Cricket Australia’s perspective, it’s important everyone understands that our players are educated on a regular basis about the risks of corruption in our game.”

The report suggested an unnamed Australian player and administrator had given information to spot-fixers so they could corrupt certain passages of play in Twenty20 matches.

Two Indian men — one of whom was identified by The Sun as a former Indian state cricketer — were quoted by the paper allegedly suggesting it was possible to influence games in T20 tournaments, naming Australia’s Big Bash, the Indian Premier League and the Bangladesh Premier League.

“It’s worth noting that our players, as well as being educated on the risks of corruption and their obligations under contract and under the ICC code, have a really strong record of reporting any approaches or suspicious activity or information that they may have,” Sutherland said.

“Those behaviours in the past are a good indicator of our confidence in our players understanding how the system works and the importance of this matter.”

The ICC said that as they are still assessing information they had not contacted police but that would change if they thought laws had been broken.

Marshall added: “We have now received all materials relating to The Sun investigation. We take the allegations extremely seriously and they will be investigated by the ICC Anti-Corruption Unit working with anti-corruption colleagues from member countries.”