The Cricket Match-Fixing Scandal

[Pmalek]

Cricket match-fixers is about an 18-months investigation carried out by reporters from Al Jazeera about a match-fixing scandal in cricket in 2016-2017. I haven’t heard about this incident until now and watched the documentary for the first time this morning.
 
 
An investigator went undercover pretending to be a businessman looking for insider information about fixed cricket matches at the highest level. The Al Jazeera reporter met a member of an underground match-fixing syndicate in a hotel in India. The entire meeting was videotaped with hidden cameras. The individual is a member of D-Company, a crime organization involved in drug trafficking, illegal sale of weapons, racketeering, human trafficking, and illegal gambling and match-fixing. 
 
Al Jazeera discovered that the crime syndicate collaborates with many players from various cricket national teams. The gang makes bets that the players on their payroll will underperform in specific game segments known as overs. It’s possible to bet on the total number of runs in those overs. The players get bribed to bat badly so that the criminal organization can profit from making bets that the total number of runs will be below the score offered by the bookies.
 
This type of match-fixing can be successful with just a few players from a particular team. Every time your player bats, he will perform according to the instructions given to him by the criminal organization. The final outcome of the match doesn’t interest the syndicate.
 
The reporter slowly builds his trust with the organization because they believed that he was a serious investor looking to make huge profits. He was introduced to other match-fixers who are ex-cricket players who played for their national teams. They told him that players request on average $70.000 to fix an over/under in a cricket match. The elite teams receive up to $1 million. 
 

How do the games get fixed?
 
A fixed match is confirmed on the day it’s played. The organizers tell the reporter that players are advised to make a signal that the fix is on. The sign is agreed before, and it can be anything. The player puts on a pair of sunglasses or a headband, he takes a pause to remove or fix his shin pads, etc. When the syndicate sees the sign, they have final confirmation the player will do as agreed. The match betting then starts.
 
They explain to the reporter that they are dealing with a small number of wealthy businessmen who use the insider information provided to them by the criminal organization to make up to $1.5 million per match.   
 
In a different kind of scheme, the match-fixers discuss how they bribe groundsmen to manipulate the cricket pitch to be better suited for either bowlers or batsmen. If the pitch gets “fixed” for bowlers, the batsmen will get ejected more quickly, and the match won’t end in a draw. One team will win. The betting syndicate lays a draw and bets against the game ending in a draw.
 

Matches that were fixed
 
On 16 December 2016, a test match between India and England began. A few players from England were bribed to fix this match. The Al Jazeera reporter paid the syndicate member $60.000 to receive information on what markets to bet on for India vs England. On the day of the fix, the investigator received a call with details about which over to bet on. The deal was that the batsman will score below the total offered by the bookies. The prediction comes true.
 
A match between Sri Lanka and India was fixed on 26 July 2017 by the groundsman. The pitch was manipulated to suit batsmen. The pitch was intentionally made hard so batsmen can get more hits and record more runs. The betting syndicate placed bets on over runs for the first team that was batting. A different match between Sri Lanka – Australia was fixed oppositely. The pitch was prepared to not favour batsmen, so they would have difficulties hitting the balls properly.
 
 
Watch the rest of the documentary where the syndicate members provide details of how they plan to fix an international cricket tournament in Dubai with members of all teams owned and controlled by the mafia organization.
 
Have you heard of this betting scandal before, and what is your opinion of all this? 
 
Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2018/5/26/exclusive-cricket-match-fixers-caught-in-the-act-in-sri-lanka

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[goinmerry]

Damn, that was a well-prepared rigged game!

There is really no reason for this rigged game not to happen if the big mafia will be involved.

The news was posted in May 2018, I wonder what's the status of the case now 3 years later on.

[Pmalek]

I was stunned when the syndicate members explained that they have the power to influence 60-70% of the international test matches. Cricket is a popular sports in many parts of the world with millions of fans attending and watching those matches. Imagine sitting there, having paid for an expensive ticket, only to realize that the players you cheer on are bribed to underperform?

The organization has no intentions to stop. One of the organizers said he doesn't want to do it once and leave. He wants to set up a huge network to be able to influence the majority of matches in many parts of the world. 

[avikz]

Match fixing is always a big scandal. There are many cases even in other games as well. In India, there were couple of cases surfaced in late 90s which actually put a hold on few famous cricketers' career including a long standing cricket team captain Md. Azharuddin.

Match fixing has happened in IPL as well and a lot of crickets were permanently banned from IPL for the rest of their life. These kind of fixing are usually done by someone extremely wealthy who can pay for the cricketers as well as bet to an extent where they recover the money and make profit out of it.

That's a negative side of gambling!

[acroman08]

The organization has no intentions to stop. One of the organizers said he doesn't want to do it once and leave. He wants to set up a huge network to be able to influence the majority of matches in many parts of the world. 

this is disturbing and disgusting. one of the saddest part here is that Aneel Munawar is still not arrested(since I haven't found anything regarding his arrest). reading through the article it's clear that there are members of ICC that are in cahoots with Aneel Munawar and that is why they only decided to take action after Aneel Muwanar has been exposed by Aljazeera undercover.

[SaShiRaJaVu]

Match fixing is not a big surprise and we know that it is happening and we will only come to know about the specifics of that only when we see these sort of revelations comes out or as part of investigative journalism. The Pakistan fixing situation came to light which implicated Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir for spot fixing when the mobile phone was given for repairing and the service person found these chat messages detailing the specifics of the fix and that is how they were able to prosecute them, we are yet to hear anyone in the match you mentioned getting prosecuted yet and this is the first time i am hearing about these specific matches.

[bryant.coleman]

Match fixing is not a big surprise and we know that it is happening and we will only come to know about the specifics of that only when we see these sort of revelations comes out or as part of investigative journalism. The Pakistan fixing situation came to light which implicated Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir for spot fixing when the mobile phone was given for repairing and the service person found these chat messages detailing the specifics of the fix and that is how they were able to prosecute them, we are yet to hear anyone in the match you mentioned getting prosecuted yet and this is the first time i am hearing about these specific matches.

International cricket involving the test nations is mostly free from match fixing now. It would have happened a decade ago, but not now. The ICC has strict monitoring mechanism in place and this prevents any sort of match fixing from happening in international matches. But I can't guarantee the same, with matches involving smaller teams such as UAE and Zimbabwe. In fact multiple members of the UAE national team were suspended recently, for their involvement in match fixing.

[Luzin]

I think only football has had a fixing scandal. It turns out that this news opened my eyes if all matches were very likely to be arranged. Their network is so wide, many people are involved. I think gambling on the game is perfectly reasonable, but let it work its way. The owner of power is supposed to evaluate all match equipment. Maybe an oath and a salary more than enough to avoid this bit of cheating.

In my country there have been cases but in football. They set the score for the results of the match. After it was discovered that the perpetrators were punished, the players who became actors were not allowed to play in soccer for life.

[perfect999]

Wow, some really excellent read and I want to add a few more things about how matches are rigged and could be rigged in my opinion.

There are countless fantasy sites and while some of them allow you to modify the team after the toss most of them will not allow you to make any changes to your picked players about 30 mins before the match. ( at toss we get to know the players playing today )

So basically some teams will drop some key players and include some new faces, this information is given to the bettors prior and they can pick those players who anyone would not even dream of picking.

Non-cricket followers can imagine as if you know LeBron James won't play tonight and you have some inside information. These things are happening countless times in small leagues and fantasy cricket is rigged as hell.

[Fortify]

On 16 December 2016, a test match between India and England began. A few players from England were bribed to fix this match. The Al Jazeera reporter paid the syndicate member $60.000 to receive information on what markets to bet on for India vs England. On the day of the fix, the investigator received a call with details about which over to bet on. The deal was that the batsman will score below the total offered by the bookies. The prediction comes true.

I have only read the article, maybe the video says something different - but the two matches that were supposedly confirmed as being fixed were "Sri Lanka versus India in July last year and Sri Lanka versus Australia in August 2016."

A third match, it is claimed in the article, was meant to fix a match between India v England at the Sri Lanka stadium - but that was not fully confirmed. I must have missed the allegation that it was the English side who would fix the match, as it does not seem to confirm which side would be cheating in this way.

It's always interesting reading about these sort of scandals and it is possible that I overlooked it, but you seem to be making a false allegation that the English team was involved. I have no doubt that the English players have the capacity to cheat, but reading that $60,000 was all it took set alarm bells off. Considering all the people that would need to be paid with that money, it doesn't seem to be worth anywhere near the risk for such a low amount from a professional cricketer perspective. Also, the sum of $60,000 being paid by the Al Jazeera reporter seems unusually high in order to prove a story as legitimate? Did the reporter or source of funds end up taking advantage of the fraudulent betting knowledge to make the money back?

[Mahanton]

The organization has no intentions to stop. One of the organizers said he doesn't want to do it once and leave. He wants to set up a huge network to be able to influence the majority of matches in many parts of the world. 

this is disturbing and disgusting. one of the saddest part here is that Aneel Munawar is still not arrested(since I haven't found anything regarding his arrest). reading through the article it's clear that there are members of ICC that are in cahoots with Aneel Munawar and that is why they only decided to take action after Aneel Muwanar has been exposed by Aljazeera undercover.

For those who had able to know those information then they would just simply shut off their mouths or also being bribe on not to talk about on  what they do know this is why
its common that those rigging incidents wont really go into public until it would be bust out by someone who cant really be handled on not to speak about it.
This one isnt already surprising and can happen from time to time without being knowing on what is actually under those curtains.

[Chato1977]

So now here we are, recently it is Basketball that has been tackled about being Rigged and now it is One of the famous sports in the world are entering this badly manipulated  games?

no wonder that this is happening in all sports ?

[tbterryboy]

I think only football has had a fixing scandal. It turns out that this news opened my eyes if all matches were very likely to be arranged. Their network is so wide, many people are involved. I think gambling on the game is perfectly reasonable, but let it work its way. The owner of power is supposed to evaluate all match equipment. Maybe an oath and a salary more than enough to avoid this bit of cheating.

In my country there have been cases but in football. They set the score for the results of the match. After it was discovered that the perpetrators were punished, the players who became actors were not allowed to play in soccer for life.

Any sport where people can bet will have chances of rigging.
I even wonder if UFC is rigged at times because some of the decisions given by the judges are hilariously funny and concerning.

I remember a fight recently concluded where one judge had the fight 30-26 for one fighter and the other judge had it something like 30-27 for the other. I know a 29-28 can happen but how can two judges be so different on the same fight that one scores it as 30-27 and the other scored it as 30-26 for the opponent.

[7788bitcoin]

This is the first time i am hearing about pitch fixing with the help of groundsman  . Spot fixing is lucrative and big rollers are trying to take advantage of these loopholes but what i did not see is that despite all these revelations by the channel i have not seen any charges against anyone. Did the ICC investigate these issues because i cannot see any article that says about charges against anyone and these are serious allegation. 

[jaberwock]

Match fixing is not a big surprise and we know that it is happening and we will only come to know about the specifics of that only when we see these sort of revelations comes out or as part of investigative journalism. The Pakistan fixing situation came to light which implicated Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir for spot fixing when the mobile phone was given for repairing and the service person found these chat messages detailing the specifics of the fix and that is how they were able to prosecute them, we are yet to hear anyone in the match you mentioned getting prosecuted yet and this is the first time i am hearing about these specific matches.

Even worst was when I heard the news that Amir has been allowed to play again (because he was under age at the times of involving in match fixing). I respect and admire Amir as a player but match-fixing should have no place in the sport, especially at the international level.

There were some videos made viral about a small league where players were acting comical and throwing the game but at the international level, you just cannot do it, if you do and get caught you shouldn't be allowed to enter the sport again ever.

[harizen]

After all this big scandal regarding fixed and rigged matches, I don't hear any news yet that someone from a "big organization" got jailed or penalized. It does, only a few I guess. Most likely at these cases, the participants such as player and staffs are the ones received a big penalty and violation.

I remember a fight recently concluded where one judge had the fight 30-26 for one fighter and the other judge had it something like 30-27 for the other. I know a 29-28 can happen but how can two judges be so different on the same fight that one scores it as 30-27 and the other scored it as 30-26 for the opponent.

It's a cooking game wherein there's a possibility that both parties are not aware there's an unusual thing happening. Far from rigged games wherein players are involved directly. One more example is the controversial NBA 2002 Western Conference Finals match between Sacramento Kings and Los Angeles Lakers. I'm sure the Lakers' players won't be involved in a rigged game but there might be someone "much higher" who wants the Lakers to win at all cost.

[KTChampions]

I'm not a cricket specialist, but this whole story looks fantastic. As far as I understand, no one has direct evidence and no criminal cases have been initiated, right? I do not believe in the reality of the events described by journalists. By the way, if they really paid someone to find out the result of the match fixing, perhaps they were simply deceived (the result that was predicted was obtained for natural reasons) by a fraudster who invented all these stories about the syndicate.

[AakZaki]

Actually I don't like cricket matches. But I found your title very interesting. I don't know what is the name of the official agency that manages the cricket league. But the administrators should have given very harsh penalties for the match fixers. Indeed, in any match I think there are bookies who bet, but let it happen naturally. There is no need for any arrangement, it will be more interesting. Does anyone know how the case goes? how about the punishment?

[OgNasty]

I feel like this sort of thing is becoming more common over the years in professional sports. Before 20 years ago this sort of thing would have been unheard of. Shoeless Joe Jackson is still known 100 years later for pulling this sort of stunt. I’m not sure if there’s any way to stop this from happening. Even if they paid the players more the criminals would just target the officials. It’s a serious problem that undermines sports as well as gamblers.

[Sithara007]

Match fixing was always prevalent in cricket. The entry of franchise T20 leagues have worsened the situation. A few years back, two of the franchises were suspended, after it was found that their own owners were involved in match fixing. And back then, one of the franchise owners was the president of the BCCI (N Srinivasan). He quickly hushed up the matters and refused any further investigation. Unfortunately it is an example of what happens, when the cricket boards are under the control of politicians and businessmen, rather than former players.