Cricket News: Fresh spot-fixing allegations hit cricket

In fresh fixing allegations to hit cricket, "a small group" of England and unnamed Australian players have been accused of fixing matches by television news channel Al Jazeera, which claimed there had been 26 spot-fixing incidents in 15 international matches. The Qatari-based broadcaster aired a documentary about corruption in cricket earlier this year, and in a follow-up they alleged on Sunday that a few England cricketers cheated in seven games between 2011 and 2012. They also reported that during the same period, some Australian players were involved in fixing five matches, Pakistan players in three and players from other, unidentified, teams in one match. The channel pointed the finger at batsmen and alleged that the suspected fixes were carried out by them by agreeing to underperform. Among the matches cited were England against India at Lord's in 2011, South Africa versus Australia in Cape Town 2011, and several games during England's series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates. The International Cricket Council said it had launched an investigation and would work with professional independent betting analysts.