London, Nov 17 : Former head of the International Cricket Council (ICC)’s anti-corruption unit Lord Paul Condon believes the proliferation of Twenty20 cricket is partially to blame for the increase of spot-fixing in the sport.
Condon says that the shortest format has exposed the players to “lots of people making very, very big sums of money”.
“Probably the greatest trigger point was the explosion of T20. The ‘anything goes’ party atmosphere allowed some really bad people back into the game. Some of the notorious fixers from early years started to re-emerge on the circuit in India, Pakistan, South Africa, Australia and the UK,” Condon told The Cricketer magazine.
“It almost legitimized the bad guys being back around cricket again, and fixers were even seen in promoters’ boxes and at matches. What up to then had been pretty tight and regulated, suddenly became a free-for-all. I think the temptation was to do a little fix here and a little fix there and still win the match - and they were not seeing it as criminal,” he added.
© ANI
