The International Cricket Council (ICC) was aware of a high-profile match fixer Aneel Munawar for as long ago as 2010, claimed Al Jazeera‘s latest documentary titled ‘Cricket’s Match Fixers: The Munawar Files’.
The channel’s documentary claims that ICC Senior Investigator, Anti-Corruption and Security Unit Alan Peacock knows about Munawar since 2010.
“There was no doubt in the mind of Peacock or the ICC that Munawar was a match-fixer. Peacock was absolutely certain of who Munawar was and his activities were of pertinent interest to him,” an anonymous source featured in the documentary claimed.
The ICC issued an official statement pertaining the claims made in the documentary saying that it will thoroughly probe the matter. The body, however, refuted claims that it was not taking the matter of fixing in cricket seriously.
“The ICC is committed to working to uphold integrity in cricket. As you would expect we will again take the contents of the programme and any allegations it may make seriously and will investigate fully. However, I must refute the assertion that cricket does not take the issue of corruption seriously, we have more resources than ever before working to rid our sport of corruption,” a statement from ICC’s anti-corruption unit general manager Alex Marshal said.
“The investigation into these allegations has already commenced and will run alongside a number of other live unrelated investigations. When considering the claims, we will work with professional independent betting analysts.”
In August this year, the ICC had made a public appeal for information about Aneel Munawar after Al Jazeera informed the cricket body about the documentary on alleged corruption in the sport.
The ICC is appealing for your help to identify this man; a suspected match-fixer known as Aneel Munawar.
More ➡️ https://t.co/hJu0rVL8ch pic.twitter.com/8cfNrgrYvI
— ICC (@ICC) August 28, 2018
“The true identity of Aneel Munawar remains a mystery. He plays a significant role in the programme, yet enquiries with law enforcement and immigration sources have not identified or located him,” Marshall had told The Guardian.
Middle order batsman Umar Akmal also appeared on Al Jazeera‘s documentary, who was shown in the film meeting and taking a bag from an associate of Aneel Munawar. There was no image or evidence of if Akmal took the bag with him.
Aneel Munawar, an alleged match-fixer on ICC’s radar, is said to have been involved in 26 instances of match-fixing in 15 international fixtures during 2011-12. He is also said to be part of the D-Company, an organised-crime syndicate run by Dawood Ibrahim.
As shown in the documentary, information passed by Aneel proves to be correct on 25 out of 26 instances, with his sole failure being by a margin of just 1-run.