Summary Newspaper claims that suspicious "betting" patterns were identified during ODI series.
LONDON (Web Desk) - Prejudiced British media could not digest Pakistan’s cricket team tremendous win against West Indies in recent ODI series and tried to create another controversy.
A British newspaper Sunday claimed that suspicious "betting" patterns were identified during the five-match One Day International (ODI) series between Pakistan and West Indies, which ended Thursday.
According to a report published on Daily Mail’s website Mail Online, unusually slow run-rates during certain overs followed by bursts of high scoring have raised many an eyebrow.
Concerns have been raised, in particular, around the tied third match of the series played in St Lucia a week ago on Friday, as well as the final game, which resulted in a last-ball win for Pakistan on Thursday, the report said.
It further said that the second ODI, which saw Pakistan fail to score a run off the bat in the first five overs after being set 233 to win, will also be looked at.
One betting website reported unusually large sums of money — said to run into several millions of pounds — being wagered between innings on a tied result during the third ODI after the West Indies were set 230 to win from 50 overs, claimed the report.
The report added that Pakistan seemed to be cruising to victory, with their opponents still requiring 45 off the last 21 balls with only three wickets left, however, but with the tail-enders scoring at more than four times the rate of most of their team-mates, Windies scraped the unlikeliest of ties.
"Field placing for the final over, when No 11 Jason Holder and fellow tail-ender Kemar Roach crashed 14 off six balls from Wahab Riaz, will be scrutinized by officers of the ICC Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU), along with a failed run-out bid off the last delivery", the report said.
Television commentator Ian Bishop, the former West Indies fast bowler, said at the time: ‘There is no way, no way, that you can convince me, whatever happens to this last ball, that Wahab Riaz and Misbah ul Haq have had this field right to the length they have been trying to execute. There is no one who can convince me of that. Totally wrong.’
The fifth ODI, which saw Pakistan win by four wickets off the final ball, is also to be scrutinized. ACSU officers will also analyze patterns on spread-betting sites around the first 18 balls of the West Indies innings when only one run was scored.
The report quoted betting expert Ed Hawkins as saying that there were suspicious betting patterns on a betting exchange.
Hawkins is the author of many books on the subject. Bookie, Gambler, Fixer, Spy are among his his famous works.
"A suspicious pattern, simply, is a flood of money wagered on an outcome just before it happens. There were some noticeable examples of this during the West Indies-Pakistan series. In the tied match, a weight of cash arrived on the tie market before Pakistan’s innings."
Another passage of play, between the 29th and 34th overs, when experienced West Indies batsmen Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels were at the crease, will also be analysed in an effort to understand why just two runs were scored from five overs before 16 were hit off the 35th over.
"ACSU investigators, who have been criticized in the past for failing to root out deep-seated corruption in cricket, would analyze betting patterns around those overs amid concerns that anyone with prior knowledge could have made a certain profit in the market for run predictions, which are usually based on totals in five-over brackets", the report said further.
