da esport bet： Sir Ronnie Flanagan, the head of the ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit, has defended his operation against accusations that they are powerless to deal with the scourge of match-fixing, and has reiterated the importance of allowing the criminal inves
da dobrowin： Andrew Miller at Lord's03-Sep-2010Sir Ronnie Flanagan, the head of the ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit, has defended his operation against accusations that they are powerless to deal with the scourge of match-fixing, and has reiterated the importance of allowing the criminal investigation that is currently underway to hold precedence over the ICC’s internal disciplinary measures.On Thursday evening, five days after the News of the World published its allegations about spot-fixing in the Lord’s Test, the ICC put its own measures into process when the three Pakistan players in the spotlight – Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir – were charged under Article 2 of the Anti-Corruption Code of Conduct, and provisionally suspended from international cricket.Speaking at a press conference at Lord’s, Flanagan – who took over at the helm of the ACSU in July, when the former head, Lord Condon, stepped down after ten years – insisted that, far from being an example of prevarication, the timelag between the newspaper revelations and the ICC’s response was a reflection of the seriousness of the allegations against the three players. That, he said, coupled with an obligation not to undermine the ongoing work of Scotland Yard, had demanded a pause for thought from the governing body before bringing its charges to bear.”What we are not is a police force,” said Flanagan. “We do not have the powers of a police force. We cannot arrest, we cannot engage in the sorts of undercover operations of which the police engage. The only power we have is the power vested in us by the ICC, and therefore by the individual member countries of the ICC.”Since last Saturday, we have been working very closely, but in parallel, with the Metropolitan Police. They are conducting a criminal investigation, which is separate to our disciplinary investigation, and the culmination of that, to date, came last night with our disciplinary charges against three players, and our provisional suspensions.””As soon as this issue was drawn to our attention, we drew up a protocol for information-sharing,” added Flanagan. “In most circumstances, we share everything with the police – and there will be what you might describe as Chinese walls between the two investigations, and that is right and proper – but in the course of an ongoing investigation, there are some things that it would not be right for the police to share with us.”Flanagan refused to be drawn on the exact nature of the charges that have been levelled against the three players, adding that they were “entitled to the absence of any hint of prejudice” as the investigation unfolds. However, he did confirm that they related directly to the events of the Lord’s Test, and that a life ban could be applicable if they were found guilty of what he conceded were being considered as top-category breaches of the Anti-Corruption Code.”We must be scrupulously fair to them,” said Flanagan. “We operate a sliding scale in our disciplinary proceedings, and in more serious cases – and these are undoubtedly in that category – the charges must be proven beyond all reasonable doubt, with the full criminal burden of proof. We cannot presume guilt at all, but if guilt is found, the punishment can range right up to a life ban from the game, that is at the worst end.”The ICC has come in for some criticism in the wake of the News of the World allegations, with the inference being that a newspaper with no day-to-day interest in the matters at hand has succeeded in exposing cricket corruption to a degree that the ACSU could never have achieved. Though Flanagan conceded that the events of the past week had caused the unit to consider whether extra powers and personnel were needed, he warned that his operation should not seek to exceed its brief.”If these charges are proven, I congratulate what the News of the World has done in bringing this to light,” he said. “They’ve done it in ways that ICC would not want to engage in, nor its individual members would want to engage in. But we can’t just take extra powers upon ourselves. We have close operational working relationships with the police in all the countries where international cricket is played, and we don’t want to assume powers that are equivalent to police powers. I am sure that that close relationship [with the Metropolitan Police] will be demonstrated in this case.””We think we have arrived in a position where the players have a case to answer,” said Flanagan. “It doesn’t mean we’ve arrived at a finding of guilt, and due process will have to be followed. Of course you can never be 100% fool-proof, and of course there will be always instances of wrongdoing. But I refute the suggestion that this has represented a failing of the ACSU. I have been very impressed by what my investigators have done this week, and how they have engaged with the parallel criminal investigation.”
