NEW DELHI: ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat believes making betting legal in the Indian sub-continent would help in monitoring the bookmakers and also "make the fight against corruption easier".
"If the industry was regulated you could actually work with them, monitor them better and everything would be legal so there is reason to go underground. So our view is if it was to be regulated it would make the fight against corruption much easier for us," Lorgat said.
Corruption in the game had come to light from time to time with the latest being the spot-fixing scandal which rocked international cricket last August in England, where three Pakistani cricketers were found guilty of being involved in the scam.
Lorgat said the ICC is now toying with the concept of 'mystery shopper' to ensure that such an incident doesn't occur again.
"We have a review ongoing at the moment, an external review, to see what we have learnt out of the last decade of this anti-corruption and security unit. We certainly don't want a repeat of last year's incident," he said.
"Having said that we thought it might be worthwhile to have an independent review to see what sort of recommendations or suggestions could come out that could improve the operations or the fight against corruption.
"One of the suggestions being mooted, is the concept of a mystery shopper. Meaning that we may well have people posing as a bookmaker, and approaching players to see if they report back to the anti-corruption and security unit, which is an obligation they have got," he added.
Asked what sort of reaction the ICC have received from the players on the mystery shopper issue, Lorgat said, "Well the players I haven't heard much from but I'm conscious of the fact that the players association, FICA, initially their response was not very supportive because they felt it was some sort of entrapment.
"But it's early days it was just a thought we had, let's see what the recommendations are and if we think it's a worthwhile idea we will engage with the players and the association to see if it's implementable."
Lorgat said he was confident that the players would support the idea.
"Absolutely, I think those are things we need to support. I'm confident that the majority of players are honest and play the game in the right spirit and they would have no reservations in supporting such a move," he said.
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"If the industry was regulated you could actually work with them, monitor them better and everything would be legal so there is reason to go underground. So our view is if it was to be regulated it would make the fight against corruption much easier for us," Lorgat said.
Corruption in the game had come to light from time to time with the latest being the spot-fixing scandal which rocked international cricket last August in England, where three Pakistani cricketers were found guilty of being involved in the scam.
Lorgat said the ICC is now toying with the concept of 'mystery shopper' to ensure that such an incident doesn't occur again.
"We have a review ongoing at the moment, an external review, to see what we have learnt out of the last decade of this anti-corruption and security unit. We certainly don't want a repeat of last year's incident," he said.
"Having said that we thought it might be worthwhile to have an independent review to see what sort of recommendations or suggestions could come out that could improve the operations or the fight against corruption.
"One of the suggestions being mooted, is the concept of a mystery shopper. Meaning that we may well have people posing as a bookmaker, and approaching players to see if they report back to the anti-corruption and security unit, which is an obligation they have got," he added.
Asked what sort of reaction the ICC have received from the players on the mystery shopper issue, Lorgat said, "Well the players I haven't heard much from but I'm conscious of the fact that the players association, FICA, initially their response was not very supportive because they felt it was some sort of entrapment.
"But it's early days it was just a thought we had, let's see what the recommendations are and if we think it's a worthwhile idea we will engage with the players and the association to see if it's implementable."
Lorgat said he was confident that the players would support the idea.
"Absolutely, I think those are things we need to support. I'm confident that the majority of players are honest and play the game in the right spirit and they would have no reservations in supporting such a move," he said.
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