CHENNAI: Another fixing claim has surfaced and it involves the Indian team and an Indian first-class cricketer. The venue is Galle in Sri Lanka and the match in question is last year’s Test between India and Sri Lanka.
No India player is named in the sting operation by TV channel Al Jazeera, although it involves former Mumbai all-rounder Robin Morris. The ICC has started an investigation.
Morris is apparently seen in a clipping saying that Galle curator Tharanga Indika can doctor pitches. “We...can make a pitch to do whatever we want it to do... Because he’s (Indika) the main curator. He is the assistant manager and curator of the Galle stadium,” the channel’s website quotes Morris as saying.
“We have launched an investigation... based on the limited information we have received,” ICC GM (Anti Corruption) Alex Marshall said in a statement. The ICC is awaiting assistance from the channel. “We have requested them to share the footage with us. But we are still to hear from them in this regard,” ICC sources told Express.
Morris played 42 first-class matches from 1996 to 2004. ICC investigators are yet to contact him.
“When we get in touch with depends on what we see in the tapes,” added sources.
The match was played last July and India had won by 304 runs. They scored 600 and 246/3 declared. The report claims Indika could prepare pitches according to requirements.
Whose requirements, that is not clear.