I was shocked by the spot-fixing allegations, says Glenn Maxwell

Recently Al Jazeera did a documentary alleging that certain moments from India vs Australia Ranchi Test last year were fixed.

Maxwell scored his maiden Test hundred in that Ranchi Test. (AFP)

Australian Cricketer Glenn Maxwell has come out and said that he was in utter disbelief and shocked by the recent match fixing allegations that were made about a game he was involved in for his country. 

In May 2018, Al Jazeera aired a documentary alleging that shining that certain moments and passages of play during last year's drawn Test between Australia and India in Ranchi were fixed. During this documentary, a criminal claims two unnamed Australian batsmen were paid off to bat slowly during a period of play in the Test when he makes a phone call from the ground in Ranchi. No identification was made public but details on the state of play and slightly blurred footage made playing kit distinguishable to the one Maxwell used. 

Talking about this to SEN, Maxwell was quoted saying, "I was shocked. I was a bit hurt by it as well, To have these allegations about your involvement in a game where you've only got happy memories about it, great memories … I still remember the feeling after hugging Steve Smith after getting my maiden Test hundred."

"To have that tarnished by these allegations was pretty devastating and obviously there's absolutely no truth to it whatsoever. It was 100 per cent unfair, to tarnish one of best moments of my career was pretty brutal. The only thing they could have done worse was tarnish that World Cup win (in 2015). They're two of the best moments of my career. To say I'd done anything untoward in that game, when I'd just finally got back in the Test side – I'd worked my absolute backside off – to say I'd do anything to ruin that would be absolutely ridiculous."

He specifically pointed out, "If (the documentary) mentioned any names, they would be taken down pretty heavily, They didn't mention any specific names but did basically say the time of the game, which was my involvement. You could see it was the gear that I was using, and there wasn't anyone else using that gear in that game. That was certainly very hard to take."

Maxwell, reiterating he has had good conversations with the cricket's anti-corruption officials during his involvement in the Indian Premier League, said, "I've been very honest with them (anti-corruption officials) the whole way through with the IPL, If I've ever seen anything untoward I always sat down with them, had a long coffee and just talked about everything to make sure nothing ever, ever comes back to me. If there's anything slightly amiss, I always give them a call and make sure they have every bit of evidence they can possible have."

"There's some things you see in the game of cricket where you're always just a little bit unsure. All the things you do hear in the game, and when it comes out later on you go, 'Oh, I swear I could have noticed that while I was watching it'. It was probably easier when I was captain and I was able to see the way game was going, and the instructions that I was giving players, and the way the game was moving I could actually work it out a little better. There wasn't really anything untoward in season I was captain, but you could certainly tell from opposition stuff and that's why I reported certain things."

(Inputs from Cricket.com.au)

 
 

By Kashish Chadha - 24 Jul, 2018

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