The Federation of Internationals Cricketers Association (FICA) chief Tony Irish said players are afraid of revealing corruption and wrongdoing related information as they are concerned about the way ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit (AUC) treat players’ statements.
The incident has come in the public discourse when former New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum said that neither AUC nor ICC deals with sensitive information from players with sincerity as he gave his own example during his MCC Sprit of Cricket Lecture. Once he has given a statement against his former teammate that Chris Cairns offered him twice to fix the match but he denied.
McCullum last year appeared in Southwark Crown court to say how he reported two approaches by Cairns to AUC.
The officials of the AUC promised him that his words will never be known to other.
Now Cairns was freed and McCullum’s statement was published by English newspapers that irritated him.
FICA chief Tony said the manner AUC used the “sensitive information” is intolerable as players are afraid to talk to AUC in the future. Tony asked ICC to focus on these issues.
Talking to a cricket specific website he said, “There is a degree of nervousness generally among players who report, around how that information will be used.”
Irish also said ICC should also ask AUC to deal with players statement with sensitivity.
Players statement often leaked to the news media that stun players and create fear among them.
“From a collective point of view, we want to ensure that any sensitive information provided to authorities by players is protected and that the various protocols and procedures in place to provide adequate protections to players, in particular to whistleblowers. Protecting clean athletes have effectively been a critical aspect of ensuring that corruption is stamped out,” he said.
McCullum in his speech also questioned, “How can the game’s governing body expect players to cooperate with it when it is then responsible for leaking confidential statements to the media?”