A new anti-corruption team of seven ECB officials has been created to monitor domestic one-day cricket. The team will be deployed at televised and non-televised matches in the Friends Life t20, which starts on June 12, and in later rounds of the Clydesdale Bank 40.
The creation of the team is part of the ECB’s anti-corruption drive, which began in 2010 after the arrest of Mervyn Westfield, the former Essex all-rounder, on charges of spot-fixing. A new anti-corruption unit was created, led by Chris Watts, a former Metropolitan Police officer, and the monitoring team will be under his responsibility.
“The officials will be a visible presence at matches,” David Collier, the ECB’s chief executive, said. “They will act as a constant reminder to players, officials and club personnel of the need for vigilance as we seek to identify, prevent and eradicate corrupt practices.”
A three-month amnesty period for providing anonymous information about corruption was concluded recently with no significant developments, but with the ECB about to announce the sale of broadcast rights to Asia for a reported £125 million, extra safeguards are needed. All county players have had to complete an anti-corruption tutorial online.
Westfield was convicted in February after accepting £6,000 to concede a certain amount of runs in a set period for Essex against Durham in a CB40 match in 2009. He was sentenced to four months in jail and his appeal against the conviction was thrown out yesterday. Lord Judge, the Lord Chief Justice, and two other judges at the Court of Appeal in London upheld the convictions against Westfield and Mazhar Majeed, the cricket agent, who was separately sentenced to prison for 32 months last November for his involvement in the Pakistan spotfixing case of 2010.
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While the two cases were not connected, their appeals were heard at the same time because they involved the same point of law.
Lord Judge rejected both appeals, saying that codes of conduct in Pakistani and English cricket made it a contractual obligation not to accept bribes to influence a match.
“There could not be any clearer indication of the simple proposition that the Pakistan Cricket Board regarded the conduct of the players on the field as integral to its affairs and business,” Lord Judge said. “Precisely the same considerations apply to Westfield and Essex County Cricket Club. That was the entire point of the agreement that he should play on behalf of the county to the best of his ability.”
Majeed’s barrister claimed that there was no jurisdiction to try his client in England because the gambling on the no-balls that he had arranged took place overseas. Lord Judge replied that Majeed’s fix was made in England, money had been given here to three Pakistan players to carry out the fix and it related to matches being played in this country.