ICC Anti-Corruption Unit chief wants youths to take initiative

Mumbai, March 6 (IANS) With the World Twenty20 due to start in India on Tuesday, International Cricket Council (ICC) Anti-Corruption Unit chief Ronnie Flanagan on Sunday insisted that the youngsters must step in and ensure that the game is played in a transparent manner.

The 27-day World T20 tournament begins in Nagpur on March 8 and will be played at eight venues across India with Eden Gardens in Kolkata scheduled to host the final on April 3.

“We cannot entirely eliminate corruption from cricket or other sport, we have to make sure we try out best to get rid of it. We want especially young players to get rid of these things," he said.

"We have warned players and constantly educated them in this regard to stay away from corruption and will tell them the same in the future. I hope we don’t have to talk about corruption after the game. We have done all to prevent corruption and we want to finish the tournament in a clean manner,” Flanagan said at a press conference here.

“We are quite a small unit in ICC dealing with corruption. We are not a police force, we do not have the powers of a police force and we do not seek the powers of a police force, but what we do have is very good relationships with police bodies in all countries where cricket is played."

"So that if in the course of our business, we believe that we uncover actual criminality we have good relationships with the local police who can deal with those matters,” the 66-year-old said.

The retired senior British police officer was hopeful that the sixth edition of WorldT20 will be a successful one and free from any sort of corruption.

“These 58 games which we hope will be an unforgettable experience for everyone. My drive is that at the end of these four weeks, when we know who has won the World Championship, we will be talking about cricket and that unforgettable experience. We will not, I hope, be talking about corruption or anti corruption."

"I think it is important that you have some idea and through you the cricketing public have some idea about what we do to prevent corruption from this tournament and what we do generally in the day to day basis to prevent corruption,” the Anti-Corruption chief said.