London: International Cricket Council (ICC) chief executive Haroon Lorgat refuted the claims made by the the former Australian skipper Steve Waugh that 56 cricketers reported illegal approaches by bookmakers to the sport’s governing body last year.
“Waugh’s figures cannot be proved and even if they are correct, it would only show that players are now more aware of their responsibility to report those illegal approaches,” Lorgat told Radio Five.
“I’m not sure from where Steve Waugh gets that figure from because we do not publish any such information,” he said.
“In fact there’s one individual in the anti-corruption and security unit that maintains such records and he does not even know the figure himself, simply because he had not compiled it. So I’m not sure where Steve Waugh gets that figure from.” he added.
He said players are far more conscious today. The vast majority certainly play the game in the right spirit and they have the integrity to play the game properly and they are coming forward and reporting such approaches so that’s a good thing.
Waugh, a member of the MCC’s world cricket committee, has recently claimed that the number of illegal contacts made to cricketers had risen dramatically and 56 current players have been approached by the bookies in 2010.
He (Waugh) had also asked players to voluntarily take lie-detector tests in a bid to root out corruption from cricket. (UNI)