New Delhi: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has expressed concern over the multi-million dollar
Indian Premier League (IPL) being susceptible to match-fixing because of twin reasons of excessive cash involved and the hype surrounding it.
ICC General Manager (Cricket) Dave Richardson said the Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU) Chief Sir Paul Condon in a presentation at the annual conference in Dubai has warned that "IPL brings with it the biggest threat to the game in terms of corruption since the days of cricket in Sharjah."
"We are concerned. Let's face it, the IPL is the first domestic competition which has attracted such huge interest and when it does it's going to inevitably going to attract the interest of match-fixers and people like that," Richardson said.
"And because of the interest created, there is no doubt that we would be concerned if the BCCI neglected that part of the game and didn't make sure that they had very strict measures in place to ensure doesn't take a foothold in the IPL or any other domestic competition for that matter," he was quoted as saying by a website on Thursday.
Richardson said Condon's presentation was an attempt to inform the member boards on what is the current situation of corruption in the game.
"The purpose of the meeting and having the briefing from Lord Condon is to keep the members informed and so the message was clearly accepted by the BCCI.
"There is certainly no criticism intended on IPL or the BCCI. It's just a fact of life that there is a lot of betting going on in cricket. And that because there's so much money
passing hands, inevitably the temptations are going to be there to try and get the players involved."
