ICC Anti-Corruption Unit and National Crime Agency close to match-fix agreement

Chairman Sir Ronnie Flanagan has revealed the International Cricket Council's Anti-Corruption Unit is close to a memorandum of understanding with the National Crime Agency in an effort to combat match-fixing.

The agreement in this country would allow information to be shared between all police forces. Similar deals are already in place in Australia and New Zealand and are also close to being signed in India and South Africa.

Match-fixing or spot-fixing has become an increasing problem in the game in recent years and Flanagan has told the Daily Telegraph there are "a whole series of ongoing investigations at the moment ranging across different countries".

He said: "The benefits of the increased co-ordination are already being seen.

"We want MOUs with investigative bodies wherever world cricket is played. We have it already in New Zealand and Australia and we are in the final stages in drawing them up to be signed within the next month or so with South Africa, India and the National Crime Agency in the UK.

"Our job is primarily about prevention. We as a unit must be seen as the players' friend and exist to prevent the players from falling into the clutches of the predators who are trying to suck them into their web of deceit and criminality.

"It is very important that there is a recognition that we are not a police force, do not seek to be a police force and do not have the powers. We cannot investigate members of the public. We can only investigate people within our remit, players in the international game as far as the ACU is concerned."

The acquittal of Chris Cairns on perjury and perverting the course of justice charges led to Professional Cricketers' Association chief executive Angus Porter expressing the fear that cricketers could be deterred from reporting match-fixing.

Former New Zealand all-rounder Cairns was on Monday found not guilty of lying under oath during his successful libel case in 2012 against former Indian Premier League chairman Lalit Modi, who accused him of match fixing on Twitter two years earlier.

The verdict followed evidence from the current Kiwi captain Brendon McCullum testifying that Cairns had approached him about fixing matches in 2008.

Both McCullum and another revered former New Zealand cricketer Daniel Vettori were accused by Cairns' defence of not telling the truth in court.

Players' union chief Porter said earlier this month: "It doesn't encourage people to believe that if they come forward with information they are going to have a happy experience following on from that."

But Flanagan, formerly one Britain's most senior police officers, added: "I don't feel we have to regain trust. It is a question of...making the players realise we are there to protect them and that we are not there to to snoop on them. We are there to protect players from the predators that would want to draw them in.

"I have not had the chance yet [to speak to McCullum] but our people have. These were criminal proceedings but I want to talk with all the players to make them aware we are their friend and here to protect them."Source Eurosport