Everyone knows it goes on at the lower levels of the game, and rooting it out is near impossible, but when the international circuit is implicated in match-fixing claims it’s a painful reminder that cricket hasn’t yet exorcised those demons.

The thing about cricket is that it’s a spot-fixer’s dream, which is to say those betting can win huge sums of money by subtly influencing minute aspects of the match.

Over the weekend Al Jazeera released their doccie, Cricket’s Match Fixers, and it sent shockwaves through the sport.

Hindustan Times reports:

The sting has been carried out by the Al Jazeera channel and the matches in question are India vs Sri Lanka (Galle, July 26-29, 2017), India vs Australia (Ranchi, March 16-20, 2017) and India vs England (Chennai, December 16-20, 2016)…

The charges — pitch could have been doctored at the behest of fixers (India vs Sri Lanka), and involvement of some Australian and England players in spot-fixing the other two games. However, no Indian player’s name has cropped up in any wrongdoing…

The ICC said it is investigating but also stated that the channel has not cooperated in the matter.

“We have been in ongoing dialogue with the broadcaster which has refused our continual requests to cooperate and share information which has hampered our investigation to date,” ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit General Manager Alex Marshal said in a statement…

To start, here’s a little snippet of what the doccie claims to have exposed:

And another:

The fallout from the video has already begun, with some international cricket boards coming out firing:

Sri Lanka Cricket on Sunday suspended a player and a groundsman who allegedly agreed to tamper with the pitch to alter the result of an upcoming Test against England, as police launched an investigation into the claims.

Tim Paine, the Ozzie skipper busy trying to rebuild his nation’s reputation, doesn’t believe there’s any participation from his guys:

Shame, Tim really isn’t having a smooth ride.

If you feel like going all in on this one, you can find the full doccie below:

[source:aljazeera&hindustantimes]