Cricket Australia (CA) chief Nick Hockley revealed that police are investigating the leak of a confidential report on alleged drug use by a “well-known” player that was leaked to the media.
The Age newspaper reported on Sunday that it had received a recording of a phone call between a woman, who described herself as a “high-class” escort, and Cricket Australia’s former integrity chief, Sean Carroll, in which she alleged a player was using cocaine and dancing naked on the balcony with numerous woman.
“I saw the article this morning. Those reports are unsubstantiated,” Hockley said dubbing the allegations surrounding the former player as “unsubstantiated” and “historical”.
“They are historical. Any stealing of confidential information is a crime. We have reported it and are getting assistance from Vic Police. It’s really important people are able to contact our integrity line in full confidence that it is going to be kept secure. Certainly our processes, we review them regularly, to ensure they are absolutely best practice,” he added.
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The Age said that the recording was sent via an encrypted email service from an anonymous address. The source of the leak claimed to be a former CA staffer “who wanted to expose flaws in its integrity unit”.
This comes just a month after Australia’s ex-captain Tim Paine resigned from his job and took a break just weeks before the Ashes 2021-22 after it came to light that he was investigated for a sexting incident with a Cricket Tasmania colleague in 2017.
Hockley also reiterated CA’s commitment to sending the Australian team to Pakistan in March despite the rising number of cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 virus. Australia has not toured Pakistan since 1998.
“We just had a (CA management) team go over to Pakistan. We are working closely with the PCB and all the authorities. It’s a really complex endeavor, we are very committed to touring. It is absolutely our intention to tour as long as it is safe to do so,” Hockley said.
(PTI inputs)
