Al Jazeera claims to have spotted bookies near Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma

Al Jazeera made it clear they have no report of Rohit and Virat involved in any wrongdoing.

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli | GETTY

After Al Jazeera's claim of spot-fixing by Australian players, they have come up with another shocking claim. As per reports of Al Jazeera, they have pictures of match-fixer Aneel Munawar and his group talking to cricketers like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Umar Akmal during the World T20 2012 in Sri Lanka. But, they don't claim that these players are involved in any kind of wrongdoings.

Nonetheless, Al Jazeera website claims there are some famous international cricketers involved in spot-fixing. Going by their reports, they also have evidence. It says, "the evidence, from 2011 and 2012, points to a small group of England players allegedly carrying out spot-fixes in seven matches; Australia players in five matches; Pakistan players in three, with players from other teams carrying out spot-fixes in one match."

Al Jazeera's documentary titled, 'Cricket's Match Fixers: THe Munawar Files' claims that Aneel Munawar, an alleged match-fixer on ICC's radar, had been involved in 26 spot-fixing instances in six Tests, six ODIs and three World T20 matches between 2011-12.

The documentary also claims fixed passages of play in seven matches by England players, five matches by Australia players, three matches by Pakistan players, and in one match by players from another country.

The channel's report further claimed that the matches in which fixes were allegedly carried out included an England-India encounter at Lord's Cricket Ground, a South Africa-Australia match in Cape Town and several games during England's series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Munawar, who had been identified as a prominent match-fixer in Al Jazeera's first documentary 'Cricket's Match-Fixers' that aired in May this year, is supposedly a member of the 'D-Company' controlled by Dawood Ibrahim.

The report claimed that "our dossier also includes photographs of Munawar and his associates hovering near, and purportedly talking to, international cricket players during the T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka in 2012."

"There is no suggestion that these players were involved in match-fixing," it added.

Name of Suresh Raina and Lakshmipathy Balaji and Andy Bichel, the Australian coach are also mentioned in the report which says Munawar was seen in a photograph with them.

The report also says, Pakistan cricketer Umar Akmal had received a bag by Munawar associate. 

To start investigations, ICC is demanding footage from Al Jazeera. "We will again take the contents of the programme and any allegations it may make seriously and will investigate fully," said Alex Marshall, the general manager of the global governing body's anti-corruption unit.

 
 

By Sihyeu Singh - 22 Oct, 2018

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