ICC Anti-corruption team reports back from India

The head of the ICC Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU), Sir Paul Condon, spoke today of the progress achieved from a series of meetings held with senior Indian officials in Chennai and New Delhi over the past week.

The meetings were held to move forward the ACU’s investigations into allegations made against overseas cricketers in the Indian CBI report, published at the beginning of November.

Sir Paul Condon

No Indian cricketers have been approached or interviewed by the ACU.

"The CBI report was a significant step forward in the fight against corruption in cricket and I congratulate the CBI on its thoroughness and professionalism," said Sir Paul Condon.

"We are determined to leave no stone unturned in investigating these allegations, but equally players should not be condemned without evidence being available. As a result, we have been working to establish whether this evidence can be uncovered.

"We have now concluded talks with key figures from the BCCI, New Delhi Police, the CBI and the Indian Government to gather information in areas where the CBI has no jurisdiction - namely the non-Indian players," confirmed Sir Paul.

The ACU team has been joined in India by three anti-corruption investigators. Greg Melick from Australia, Tim Gresson from New Zealand and Desmond Fernando from Sri Lanka have each been appointed by their respective Boards to follow up the CBI allegations made against their players. This was the first time the investigators had worked together as a single team.

Speaking on behalf of the combined team Sir Paul Condon said, "All of us were made very welcome in India and have been pleased by the constructive co-operation we have received from the authorities. There is new evidence available to support our investigations and the immediate task is to make an assessment of its content.

"We have jointly agreed to move forward in a co-ordinated fashion with colleagues around the cricketing world, to take investigations to a further stage."

Editor’s note: During its visit the ACU met with the following individuals and organisations in Chennai and New Delhi:

Dr A C Muthiah, President of the BCCI
Mr K Madhavan, special investigator of the BCCI
Mr R Sawani, joint director of the CBI, and senior colleagues
Dr K K Paul, head of New Delhi Police
Mr Arun Jaitley, Union Law Minister, Government of India
Dr Uma Bharati, Union Sports Minister, Government of India

Mail Cricket Editor