ACB strengthens stand

The Australian Cricket Board (ACB) today announced additional steps to improve its education and regulation programs and strengthen Australian cricket?s ability to keep corruption out of the game.

The plan follows the International Cricket Council?s (ICC) special Executive Board meeting held in London earlier this week.

The ACB initiatives will see:

• The appointment of an independent ACB Special Investigator whose task will be to investigate any evidence of corrupt behaviour in the Australian game. This person will be available to work with the recently appointed ICC Special Investigator in the event that assistance is required in Australia.

• The ACB will immediately adopt the ICC?s penalties instituted at the emergency meeting in London, including mandatory life suspensions to any player found guilty of match fixing to strengthen the ACB?s Code of Behaviour. This will extend beyond players to umpires, officials and administrators.
• The ACB convene a round-table conference for all major Australian sporting codes to identify common strategies and establish an effective coordinated approach to address this issue.
• Expansion of the current ACB education and induction program to include annual education sessions with all ACB and state contracted players, Australian under 19 players, Commonwealth Bank Cricket Academy inductees, umpires, groundsmen and administrators.
• All players and officials sign an undertaking before each series. This seeks to ensure two things - firstly, immediately before every series it provides players with a clear reminder of their obligations to the game. Secondly, it provides an undertaking to the public that the match will be played on its merits, free from any gambling influence.

These new steps build on the ACB?s existing program which is already the most comprehensive in world cricket and on the initiatives announced on 3 May 2000 by the ICC.

In announcing the initiative, ACB Chief Executive Malcolm Speed said that the steps were designed to ensure that the game in Australia remains and is seen to remain free of corruption.

"As a result of the independent inquiry conducted by Mr Rob O?Regan QC into Player Conduct in January 1999, Australian cricket has been able develop and implement the most comprehensive program to tackle the scourge of corruption in world cricket," said Mr Speed.

"The steps announced today, with the full support of the players, build on these strong foundations and are a pro-active measure to ensure that the game under our jurisdiction is and is seen to be free of any outside influence."

Australian Captain, Steve Waugh, who joined Mr Speed in announcing the changes, strongly supported the initiatives.

"Cricket is a game rich in tradition and it is this history that forms the basis of the game today," said Mr Waugh.

"Any threats to the integrity of our game needs to be tackled aggressively. I hope these initiatives start to rebuild any trust in the game that may have been lost and that people recognise that players and administrators are united in our determination to keep this evil out of our game."