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Active cricketers on social media may lead to corruption; BCCI not bothered

BCCI ACU chief said that Indian cricketers were perfectly equipped to deal with any kind of corrupt approach coming in from social media.

Active cricketers on social media may lead to corruption; BCCI not bothered

(Photo: IANS)

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Anti Corruption (ACU) Chief Ajit Singh is not paying much heed to ICC’s ACU head Alex Marhsall’s allegations that bookies and match-fixers were trying to approach players during the lockdown period.

Marshall had said that the stoppage of all forms of cricket around the globe which has led to cricketers’ extended use of social media could be manipulated by corruptors of the game to try and build a relationship with the cricketers.

“We are seeing known corrupters use this time, when players are on social media more than ever, to connect with them and try to build a relationship that they can exploit at a later date,” Marshall said in an interview to The Guardian as quoted by PTI.

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However, BCCI’s ACU chief has expressed his confidence over the modus operandi of the Indian governing body regarding the subject and said players were perfectly prepared to handle situations like the one mentioned by Marshall.

“…we have made our players aware about the way people approach you and modus operandi through social media. We have told them ‘look this is how they (potential fixers and bookies) would approach you’,” the veteran IPS officer told PTI in an interaction.

“(They will) try and behave like a fan and then try to meet you through someone who may be your acquaintance. Somehow these elements try and touch base with players. Most of them (India players), whenever it happens, they do report to us that I have got a contact,” Ajit added.

With the players spending longer-than-usual time on social media with live video and Q&A session, the ACU chief said that the BCCI was trying to monitor the online content as much as possible to safeguard the cricketers from falling prey to any kind of wrongdoing.

“Whatever can be tracked online, we do that. But obviously the physical verification part of going out and checking locations is out of question in times of a lockdown,” he spoke about practical problems.

“But if something comes to our notice, it automatically goes into our database and once lockdown is over, we will verify those if the need arises,” Ajit said.

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