Cricket Australia chief: No reason to suspect Ashes subject to match-fixing

The world of cricket has been reacting to an undercover report by The Sun

Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland says there is "no substance to allegations or justification to suspect" that the third Ashes Test match has been compromised by spot-fixers.

A report in The Sun claimed two Indian bookmakers had told the newspaper they could influence two sessions of play in a Test for a fee of £140,000, saying they used an Australian fixer known as 'The Silent Man'.

Sutherland joined the International Cricket Council's corruption unit chief Alex Marshall, as well as ECB chief executive Tom Harrison and ICC chief executive David Richardson, on a conference call on Thursday to discuss the issue, where he received assurances that the match in Perth was not the subject of match-fixing.

He added that no England or Australia players had been implicated by the dossier of evidence handed to authorities by Sun journalists.

"What we heard ... is there's no evidence, substance or justification based on the dossier of information the ICC has received from the news outlet or based on ICC intelligence from previous investigations," Sutherland said in a hastily-arranged press conference prior to the start of play at the WACA.

"There's no substance to these allegations or justification to suspect that this Test match or indeed the Ashes series as a whole is subject to corrupt activities.

"He also went on to say that 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 for everyone to understand that our players are educated on a regular basis about the risks of corruption in our game.

"They are fully aware and understanding of their obligations under contract and under the ICC code to make the ICC or Cricket Australia or the ECB aware of any suspicious activity or any approaches that they may have.

"We have absolute confidence in our players and our team officials and others involved in the game to say there is nothing to suggest based on what we've heard from Alex Marshall and other understandings we have or other intelligence we have, to have any suspicions about our players. We have full confidence in them."

Sutherland re-iterated Cricket Australia's stance on match-fixing, saying: "I think we're absolutely committed to a zero-tolerance approach to anti-corruption and we don't want the game's integrity to be under threat in any way and we'll continue through our own anti-corruption unit to educate the players so that they understand the responsibilities and the risks and manage them accordingly."