Spot-fixing: Turmoil in India makes Australia take a cautious approach

Even as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the International Cricket Council find themselves accused of being prosaic in tackling spot-fixing in cricket, Cricket Australia is working overtime to ensure that in future, it is not embroiled in such a controversy.

Former AFL executive Adrian Anderson is conducting a review of Cricket Australia's integrity and disciplinary systems and has reportedly told state cricket associations that a particular global betting agency, each year, turns over 1 billion dollars from betting in Australian cricket. This is in sharp contrast with CA's own calculations of earning about 500,000 dollars a year from agreements with operators.

While unlike India, sports betting is legal in Australia, Anderson is believed to have said that there is a need for strong integrity systems around international and domestic competitions, adding that 60 per cent of the 1 billion dollars mentioned above is from Big Bash League and 'much from off-shore accounts.' (Read full report here)

Recently, Indian police said that their initial investigations revealed use of hawala money - a system where money is transferred through a network of people, mostly money brokers - which also means that tracing them becomes difficult, much like tracing money from off-shore accounts mentioned by Anderson.

While Indian cricket then, wades through the murky waters of money-driven interest in cricket, Australia appears to have cautioned itself and looks intent on keeping it's cricket and the money within the framework of legality and integrity.