Speed calls for legislation against sports cheats

Malcolm Speed, the chief executive of the ICC, has suggested that corruption in sports should be made a criminal offence by governments worldwide, with those guilty facing a jail sentence of as many as ten years.

Speaking at a conference in Berlin, Speed said: "Sport should call very loudly and with some urgency on all governments to introduce `cheating in sport' legislation. We have seen that, after effective input from our anti-corruption and security unit, the United Kingdom government has recently become one of the few legislators to criminalise cheating in sport. This should be seen as a major positive for London's 2012 Olympic Games bid."

While Speed was pleased with the development in the United Kingdom, he also suggested that the current maximum sentence of two years was too lenient. "We think ten years is a more appropriate penalty. The ICC makes no apology for wanting to see any person who attacks cricket's integrity in this way behind bars."

Speed also suggested that this wasn't only a problem for cricket, but for sport in general. "Other sports will face similar issues to those that cricket has faced with corruption through betting. In the last year we have seen football in Germany, horseracing in England and international tennis impacted by suggestions of corruption. Cricket's message to other sports is to be extremely careful in dealing with this potential attack on your sport's integrity.

"Where a player agrees to under-perform in return for payment from a bookmaker or gambler, his actions strike at the heart of the game," he continued. "Unless a sport can guarantee that all of its participants are trying their hardest to advance the interests of their team, in every aspect of the event, the sporting public is entitled to distrust and disown the sport. Other sports and governments owe it to their stakeholders to be mindful of cricket's experience."

Speed also asked for some form of legislation for all big sports events coming up over the next couple of years. "It would be great to see legislation of this sort in Germany for next year's football World Cup, in China in 2008 for the Olympics, and in all of the eight countries in the Caribbean in which the next ICC Cricket World Cup will be played."

Reacting to Speed's comments, Rod Kemp, the federal sports minister of Australia, said that their government would seriously consider framing laws which would allow for legal action against the cheats. "The Australian government believes the strongest action should be taken on those who fix sporting games in return for financial gain."