England star fires Broadside at cheats
9:03am Tuesday 7th September 2010 in Sport
STUART Broad insists there can be no excuse for any cricketer to be caught up in corruption because the warnings from on high are so explicit.
Broad acknowledges he can only speak from his personal experience with the England and Wales Cricket Board and International Cricket Council’s anti-corruption education programmes.
But he points out it is incumbent on all national boards to follow the world governing body’s lead and ensure their cricketers are left in no doubt about the tactics of those who might try to lead them astray, and the pitfalls of falling in with the wrong crowd.
Broad was speaking yesterday at a time of high sensitivity on the subject following the “spot-fixing” crisis of the past week which has so far resulted in ICC charges and suspensions for three Pakistan players who were initially supposed to be playing against England in the ongoing NatWest Twenty20 series, and one-day internationals to follow.
Instead, Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer are all no longer with the squad, having been interviewed under caution by the Metropolitan Police during investigations into an alleged plot to defraud illegal bookmakers by bowling noballs to order in the Lord’s Test.
The claims, published in the News of the World, were followed by more revelations on Sunday including an unconfirmed report that a fourth unnamed Pakistani is being investigated by the ICC on suspicions of match-fixing.
Broad, who helped England beat Pakistan in the first Twenty20 match in Cardiff on Sunday and will take them on again at the same venue today, has no doubt that all the right information is drummed into players from their point of entry into international cricket.
“We’re very educated on this sort of anti-corruption stuff,” he said. “There’s an anti-corruption guy round the changing rooms all the time.
“I don’t think any player could ever have an excuse – ‘I didn’t know’, or ‘We weren’t educated’. We get hand-outs, handbooks. The amount of books I’ve got from the ICC at home, full of information, there’s certainly no excuse as players.
“As soon as you come into the England team, the ICC get hold of you; you’re put through this video, DVD, anticorruption, everything you’re not allowed to do, everything you are allowed to do.
“Every year you get reminded and get bullet points of what to do and what not to do.
The ECB are pretty strict in regulating everything like that. We’re lucky with the board we’ve got.
“I don’t think as players there’s any excuse for not knowing, because we’re so well educated on it.”
The pace bowler sees no reason why other boards, such as Pakistan’s, should not operate the same policy.
He said: “I don’t know what other boards do. But that’s the responsibility they have to take to make sure every player is educated.”
● KEVIN Pietersen was fined yesterday after pleading guilty to two charges in relation to his foul-mouthed ‘Twitter’ outburst.
Pietersen, who offered an unreserved apology, was fined an undisclosed amount following a disciplinary meeting at Lord’s yesterday.
The England batsman inadvertently broke the news last week he was to be dropped from the limited-overs squad to face Pakistan.
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