Bookie information: ICC rejects accusations of wanting to reveal players’ identity

DUBAI - The International Cricket Council rejects accusations that it has ever or would ever reveal the identity of a player or anyone else who contacts the Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU) with information.

Inaccurate comments made in the past few days have falsely claimed that the ICC could leak such information into the public domain. This is an irresponsible, damaging and entirely untrue allegation.

The ICC (and its ACSU) treats all information it receives with the utmost confidentiality and has never revealed details of informants. It is the stated policy of the ICC not to discuss the specific activities of the ACSU, including revealing the names of players or support personnel who report suspicious activities.

Haroon Lorgat said: “Players who pass on information to the ACSU can be fully confident that their identities will never be revealed by the unit or anyone else within the ICC.”

The ICC statement comes days after cricketers and their representative bodies said they had lost trust in the ICC when it comes to reporting suspicious encounters, Australian players” association boss Paul Marsh, has said, especially in the wake of a new proposal to have undercover agents, acting as bookies, approach players to see if they alert authorities.

In a strongly worded statement, Marsh said recent revelations of the identities of players who had reported approaches to the ICC had made all players wary of being exposed, potentially putting them in danger from vengeful underground figures.

The ICC, however, said it has never publicly named any player who has reported an approach from a suspected bookie.(ANI)