Match fixing and spot fixing is not a new issue for cricket. It was quite invisible in last few years. But it is becoming more and more effective than before. Most of the cases Pakistani and Indian cricketers were among those controversial persons. Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal were approached by bookmakers ahead of an ODI series against Ireland in 2008, the Bangladesh Cricket Board has confirmed. The incidents were immediately reported to the ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit, BCB media committee chairman Jalal Yunus told Cricinfo.
During the recent tour of England, Shakib told reporters he’d been approached by a bookmaker in Dhaka. “I took the phone, and the way he spoke, he never exactly told me he wanted me to fix a match, he just told me he wanted to be my sponsor or something like that,” Shakib said then. “The way he was talking, I thought he might do something, so I told someone.”
This development, and the spot-fixing controversy in England, have prompted the BCB to organise an “awareness program” for its national players on dealing with bookmakers and fixers.
The board has also asked its top cricketers to furnish full details about their individual agents. “The players all have individual agents over whom we have no control,” Yunus told Cricinfo. “So we have asked them for information so that we can check their background and be more aware of the forces influencing our players.”
The relatively low salary structure in some cricketing nations is seen as one factor that could encourage match-fixing. Yunus, though, said he was confident that this wouldn’t influence cricketers in Bangladesh, who earn far less than their counterparts in India or Australia. “It depends of course on the individual. As far as we know, every player is honest, sincere and committed to cricket. They know that it will tarnish the country’s reputation. Indian cricket is very rich and we can’t match their salaries but in our context – in our cost of living here in Bangladesh – what the boys get is not bad. I am not saying they are rich but they are pretty well-off.”
