Twenty20 Vision: Why T20 Cricket Has a Problem with Corruption

Millions of people all over the globe play recreational and grassroots cricket for one good reason: they love the sport.

It’s anathema to most that anybody would play cricket for any other reason, but sadly there’s increasing evidence to suggest that some players – at a pretty high level, too – have ulterior motives for strapping on their pads.

Corruption, particularly in high grade domestic leagues and international tournaments involving associate nations, is rife. It’s a big statement, but the number of players being punished for ‘spot fixing’ – as well as the amount of resources the International Cricket Committee (ICC) throws at its integrity efforts – is incontestable.

T20 cricket in particular is in the crosshairs of those with a penchant for match fixing. There are stacks of franchise leagues taking place around the globe, with new ones springing up all the time, and bookmakers often provide pre-match and live betting odds for these competitions, which are barely watched and feature players on relatively low wages.

These players can be offered lucrative sums – more than they will ever earn on the pitch – to spot fix, which is to perform in a way that enables crime syndicates to win bets on particular outcomes.

The temptation to make huge sums of money in this way will be tempting to some….especially in lower-grade tournaments, where the eyes of the world are looking elsewhere.

So what is the ICC doing to combat corruption in T20 cricket. What can they do? And what is the message to fans of the sport and those that bet on it?

What is Spot Fixing?

When we talk about match fixing in other sports, such as football, it’s likely that a player will deliberately do something to impact the outcome of a game: i.e. get a booking or sending off, give away a penalty or miss a hatful of chances.

But in cricket, it’s harder for an individual player to fix an entire game; there’s simply too many interactions between bowlers and batters, as well as fielders, for one single player to have such an impact on the contest.

So, even if a batter throws away their wicket deliberately, or a bowler knowingly bowls wides, no balls and poor deliveries that will be smacked to the boundary, there’s always other players on their team – not on the take – to make up for the shortfall.

Instead, criminal syndicates will instruct the players they have ‘turned’ to spot fix, which requires them to do certain things at specific times of the match.

These are typically linked to the ‘prop’ betting markets that more and more bookmakers are offering for T20 cricket. Bettors can wager on the outcome of specific overs and even individual balls, while there’s also opportunities to bet on how many runs a batter will score (over or under a specific total), or how many runs a bowler will concede in an over (again, over or under a set number).

These ‘micro transactions’ have not only made it easier for betting syndicates to make money, they’ve also made it simpler for corrupt players to essentially go undetected while on the take.

The Fix

Corruption in cricket is nothing new….in fact, there’s even evidence to suggest it’s been around for decades in the professional game.

But there’s no doubt that the proliferation of in-play sports betting online has seen the tumour of spot fixing grow and grow.

Mohammad Amir

One of the earliest cases of this prop betting era came during Pakistan’s tour of England back in 2010, when the-then teenager Mohammad Amir admitted to deliberately bowling no balls at the behest of his captain, Salman Butt.

An undercover reporter from the News of the World was granted an audience with Mazhar Majeed, the agent for a number of Pakistan’s players, and offered him £150,000 in cash to persuade his clients to spot fix on the tour of England.

Majeed agreed, revealing that he could convince Amir to bowl two no balls at pre-arranged times of the match, which was to be played at the spiritual home of cricket at Lord’s.

The agent lent on his two co-conspirators, team captain Salman Butt and senior bowler Mohammad Asif, to put pressure on Amir to come on board, and the teenager duly obliged; at which point the details of the News of the World’s sting were revealed.

Later, when bank notes with the serial numbers of the cash given by News of the World reporters appeared in Butt’s hotel room, he claimed that the payment was made as an ‘appearance fee’ for opening an ice cream shop owned by Majeed in Tooting.

Amir, Majeed, Butt and Asif were all sentenced to prison time for their part in the scandal, with the three players all banned from cricket for varying lengths of time.

That has been arguably the biggest case of spot fixing in cricket history, but since then many other examples have emerged – and mostly relating to limited overs franchise competitions.

Further High Profile Cases

Lou Vincent, who featured in more than 100 one-day internationals for New Zealand, was charged with a staggering 18 breaches of anti-corruption rules, including fixing games on English soil, in 2014. He was banned from cricket for life, although that was overturned in 2023….albeit with Vincent now aged 45.

The Cricket Discipline Commission (CDC) has revised the life ban imposed in June 2014 on former New Zealand international Lou Vincent. The full wording of the decision can be found at the link below.

— England and Wales Cricket Board (@ECB_cricket) December 8, 2023

Sachithra Senanayake, who played in 49 ODIs for Sri Lanka, was arrested on suspicion of match fixing in September 2023. It’s claimed that he acted as a middle man, trying to convince players to spot fix, during the 2020 Lanka Premier League event.

In August 2024, Senanayake’s compatriot – Praveen Jayawickrama – was charged with three breaches of the anti-corruption code by the ICC and banned for a year. He failed to report approaches made to him to fix games both at the international level and in the Lanka Premier League.

Devon Thomas, capped 34 times by the West Indies in all formats, was banned from cricket for five years in May 2024 after contriving to fix games in a number of limited overs competitions around the world.

Another case in August 2024 saw Afghanistan batsman Ihsanullah Janat banned from all forms of cricket for five years after he ‘confessed to his involvement in corrupt activities.’

That’s five international cricketers that have admitted spot fixing in the past decade alone, with four of those cases occurring since 2023 alone.

UAE Targeted

Cricket in the United Arab Emirates has been particularly plagued by corruption scandals. Five players for the UAE national team were banned for periods ranging from five to eight years in 2021 after fixing games during the T20 World Cup qualifiers back in 2019.

The Abu Dhabi T10 League has been a common target for corruption, too. In September 2023, eight individuals – including a pair of team owners and a former Bangladesh international – were charged with breaching the anti-corruption code.

Rizwan Javed, a UK-based cricketer with ties to the UAE, was handed the ICC’s second-longest ban in February 2024. He was prohibited from playing the game for 17-and-a-half years for his part in a major corruption plot during the 2020/21 Abu Dhabi T10 League.

Rizwan Javed has been handed a 17-and-a-half-year ban for breaching the Anti-Corruption Code.

Details 👇https://t.co/IQqH3BjfLt

— ICC (@ICC) February 15, 2024

And it’s not just the players involved, either. In May 2023, an Indian umpire – Jatin Kashyap – was charged with breaching the anti-corruption code, having attempted to bribe players to fix games during the 2022 Asian Cup qualifiers.

Is the Problem Getting Worse?

There’s no doubt that spot fixing has increased in cricket since the health crisis in 2020, when players’ earning potential was lessened by the sport’s international schedule, which was effectively wiped out for more than a year.

That has coincided with the launch date of a number of short format franchise competitions around the world:

Start Year of Major Domestic Limited Over Tournaments

Nearly half of cricket’s elite franchise leagues have been formed since the start of 2020.

And that’s before we move on to the non-elite competitions at regional level. Africa, Asia, the Americas, Caribbean and Europe all play host to dozens of T20 and short format tournaments, with many boasting a betting presence – often, that’s the key that unlocks the door of corruption.

But if we also recognise that spot fixing has been going on for more than two decades, can we draw any conclusions as to whether the issue is getting worse or not?

In the image below, we’ve plotted all of the cases of corruption in cricket (the year is defined as the time that the incident(s) took place, rather than the year that the player was charged):

Tracking the data chronologically, it becomes clear that the year 2000 – when eight players were sanctioned for integrity breaches – was something of anomaly compared to the years ahead.

That was the year when the Hansie Cronje corruption scandal broke, with the former South African captain and his teammates Herschelle Gibbs and Henry Williams punished for their plot in a betting ring.

Cronje, who later be banned from cricket for life, provided bookmakers with inside information about his team, and also admitted to trying to fix matches: which included attempting to bribe Gibbs and Williams to perform poorly in an ODI game against India.

The two players initially agreed before going back on the arrangement: Gibbs going on to score 74, having been asked to deliberately get out with a score of less than 20. Because he and Williams failed to report Cronje’s scheme, they were banned for six months each.

The Indian international Mohammad Azharuddin, who reportedly introduced Cronje to the concept of match fixing, was given a life ban (later overturned), while Ajay Sharma and Ajay Jadeja were also barred from cricket after their own involvements with bookmakers.

Also in the year 2000, two Pakistan players – Saleem Malik and Ata-ur-Rehman – were banned for life for accepting bribes and/or interactions with bookies. Malik ultimately served time in prison, although both had their lifetime suspensions overturned in the years ahead.

The data certainly suggests that cricket’s corruption problem has been worsening since 2019, from which point we’ve had the proliferation of T20 franchise and lower-grade leagues forming and, of course, the earnings-cap from 2020.

It should also be noted that there’s something of a time delay in players being charged with anti-corruption code violations. In many cases, the ICC charges a player as long as two or even three years after the spot fixing has occurred, which accounts for the drop-off on the image above in 2022 and 2023.

Who knows how many more players will be sanctioned for spot fixing, for events dating back a few years, in 2025 and beyond?

Safeguarding the Future

Here’s an interesting question: the examples detailed above relate to the players and match officials that have been caught spot fixing. But what about those that have gotten away with it undetected?

It suggests that cricket, and short format franchise events in particular, has a major problem with the integrity of some of its competitions.

Andrew Marshall, the head of the ICC’s integrity unit, was pleased with the progress being made in a bid to wipe out corruption, but warned that ‘badly run, lower-level franchise leagues’ remain susceptible to those with bad intentions.

“We have now seen corruptors being disrupted, named, banned when they get involved in cricket. And the education we now do with players shows them who the corruptors are, what their methods are, so everyone is much better equipped and protected to keep corruption away from the game,” Marshall said.

That was evidenced at the T20 World Cup in the summer of 2024, where one Uganda player was approached to fix games. But he reported the incident to the ICC immediately, which shows how well the education programme is working.

However, Marshall warns of challenges facing the sport at the non-elite grade.

“I am confident that the cricket you watch is safe and clean,” he said.

“But I am also absolutely sure that corruptors are constantly looking for a route into the game, particularly in badly-run lower-level franchise leagues.”

An investigation by Telegraph Sport found that a number of these leagues simply do not adhere to the ICC’s anti-corruption standards.

To compound the fact, a handful of these competitions actually lose money, with no TV rights deal or much in the way of spectator interest. Therefore, the players are often poorly paid….which again opens the door to possible corruption.

The hectic schedule of T20 tournaments, with some overlapping with one another, is giving rise to another integrity concern: so-called ‘double dipping’.

This is where a player will sign up to play in one tournament, before potentially heading off to compete in another if/when their team gets knocked out of the first. So, in essence, there’s a financial prerogative for that player to be part of a losing team in the original tournament, so they can jet off and get paid a second time….all of which hardly helps to assuage doubts about integrity in cricket.

So problematic is the situation in some T20 franchise leagues that the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), which governs the sport domestically, will actively prohibit players from competing in competitions that appear to be open to corruption.

Richard Gould, the ECB’s chief executive, commented:

“We will take a more protective line with our players, particularly if we perceive that there’s a risk of corruption. When we see competitions that we’re concerned about, then we won’t issue NOCs (No Objection Certificate) for those competitions, irrespective of whether they’ve been sanctioned by the ICC or not.

“If people are operating competitions where there is perceived to be a risk of corruption – either through betting patterns or a lack of operating control – we’ve all got a responsibility to make sure that players are not put into difficult circumstances.”

While the steps taken to clean up cricket are admirable, with T20 and short format cricket around the globe as in demand as ever, it will surely take some time before the sport is rid of its corruption problem.