International agency Sportradar Integrity Services have deemed 13 cricket matches to be suspicious of corruption and match-fixing. Sportradar is a team of integrity experts who analyse irregular betting, match-fixing and other forms of corruption in sports.
The Switzerland-based organisation released a 28-page report titled ‘Betting, Corruption and Match-Fixing’ which brings out that in the suspicious game in the calendar year 2022. The report included an unprecedented “1212 suspicious matches” detected across 12 sporting in 92 countries.
Football saw 775 matches, which could have been corrupted, while basketball is second on the list with 220 games, and lawn tennis is third with 75 questionable games. Among the 12 sporting disciples, cricket has 13 allegedly corrupt games and is sixth on the list. This number of 13 corrupt games is still the highest for the sport in a single year so far.
"Although a number of sports continue to display relatively low numbers of suspicious matches, 13 suspicious cricket matches is still the highest annual figure recorded by Sportradar Integrity Services, and handball and futsal also recorded their highest-ever number of suspicious matches," the report stated as quoted by PTI.
PTI also asked Sportsradar which format included the most corrupted games and whether the report analysed international games or matches in the T20 leagues. However, the report states that the company hasn’t referred to any matches played in India. Sportradar has previously worked with the BCCI's anti-corruption unit in 2020 to analyse betting irregularities during IPL matches.
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