Brendon McCullum questions ICC's approach towards corruption
Former Kiwi skipper and the man who is widely regarded as the man who changed the face of New Zealand cricket, Brendon McCullum has aired his dissent towards the International Cricket Council (ICC) for their lack of safekeeping the gentlemen's game from the hands of match fixers. The 34-year-old who featured in an event called ‘Cowdrey Spirit of Cricket’ last evening, delivered a lecture on the issue of match-fixing.
Earlier in his career, McCullum was involved in the perjury trial against his former New Zealand teammate Chris Cairns when he had to appear before the jury as a witness. The high-profile case also involved the former Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman, Lalit Modi.
While delivering his lecture on the ‘Spirit of Cricket’ podium, McCullum said, “I think players deserve better from the ICC and that, in the future, the evidence-gathering exercise has to be much more thorough, more professional.”
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The Gujarat Lions opening batsman also expressed his concerns about the privacy of one's legal statements in these match-fixing cases and highlighted how upset he was when he found out about the leak of his statements (about Chris Cairns) via a Daily Mail report in 2014. “To report an approach and to give evidence requires considerable courage- players deserve much better. How can the game's governing body expect players to co-operate with it when it is then responsible for leaking confidential statements to the media,” the 34-year-old raised the question.
“It goes without saying that, if players do not have confidence in the organisation, they will be reluctant to report approaches and the game is worse off. If we are to get rid of the scourge of match-fixing, a robust governing body is essential,” McCullum added.
The former Kiwi international further stated that he never got any explanation from the ICC officials regarding how his statements got into the hands of the sports journalists. “The leak has never been explained to me; to my knowledge no one has been held accountable and, in those circumstances, it is difficult to have confidence in the ICC,” he said.
Brendon McCullum further added, “I believe I had a moral obligation to tell the truth- and I believe that the interests of the game of cricket and common decency demanded my attendance (at court). But I do wish that the ICC had handled my initial approach more professionally for the reasons I have given.”