T20 franchise leagues are failing to adhere to ICC anti-corruption standards

Exclusive: Former ICC anti-corruption officer Steve Richardson says there is concern about integrity of some franchises

A series of T20 franchise leagues are not adhering to anti-corruption standards, a former ICC official has revealed to Telegraph Sport.
Steve Richardson, who was investigations coordinator for the International Cricket Council’s anti-corruption unit for seven years until 2023, says that the ICC is worried about the organisers of entire leagues being corrupt as well as owners of specific franchises.
“With some leagues, I would always be worried about the integrity of some of the franchises,” Richardson told Telegraph Sport.
A special report from Telegraph Sport earlier this week highlighted fears about corruption in short-format leagues around the world, including concerns that some owners of teams are betting on their own teams to lose and using players to fix.
Richardson, who is now a sports integrity consultant, said that many leagues are paying lip service to the ICC’s anti-corruption guidelines, and warned of the risks to the game when tournaments attempt to cut costs.
“The minimum standards, provided they are followed by boards, would protect the boards – but people have to follow the minimum standards,” he said. “If people try to cut corners or don’t do the due diligence or ignore the red flags that are there, that’s when they run into problems.
“The risk when some of the smaller franchise leagues cover their own event is: is the anti-corruption provision going to be as robust as it could be? Having an anti-corruption official on the ground working in complete isolation from the ICC, not contacting the ICC in order to take advantage of their experience and intelligence doesn’t protect the league in the best way. There is quite a lot of that.”
Richardson warned of the consequences when boards fail to pay enough attention to anti-corruption measures in competitions.
“If you had a board who didn’t do the due diligence, and as a result of that, a corrupt individual took over a tournament or a team, then you could say that the boards have let the players down.
“There are always corrupters trying to put on leagues in different parts of the world. And that doesn’t mean to say that all the leagues are being put on by corrupters. Some of them are people with good intentions, who maybe just don’t realise what that what they’re trying to put on.”
Richardson highlighted how many leagues have tiny audiences either at the ground or on domestic television, and are largely dependent upon interest from India.
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“Every time one of these leagues pops up, there remains a high degree of risk,” he said. “A lot of those smaller leagues are only shown on channels in India, because that’s where the betting markets are.” Gambling on sport is illegal in India, but in practice vast sums are bet on illegal betting markets which are almost impossible to trace.
“If the money’s not going to come from sponsorship or television revenue, then there would be a temptation to use other means of making money, including betting. It does bring vulnerabilities when there are betting markets.”
Richardson urged associate members to be more vigilant about which leagues that they approve as new competitions pay the board in the host country a fee to be sanctioned.
“Most associate members struggle for funds. So when somebody comes along and offers them a fee to allow them to host a franchise tournament, then that is very tempting. But they don’t always do the due diligence on the people who are offering it. They don’t ask questions like, ‘Where is the money coming from? What is their track record? Have they put any other leagues on successfully?’ If the answers to any of those are in doubt, then it may signal red flags.”
While Richardson declined to identify specific leagues, reporting from Telegraph Sport has found several leagues at particular risk. This year, the co-owners of Pune Devils, in the Abu Dhabi T10 league, were banned after admitting to corrupt activities at the league in 2021. There are claims about several other leagues, including the Global T20 Canada and various legends leagues. The Bangladesh Premier League does not enlist the ICC to provide anti-corruption cover. There were over 30 allegations of corruption in the BPL in the last two years, yet none have led to bans.
Richardson explained how corruption can flourish in short-format leagues.
“An owner who is corrupt, or indeed part of the management team who is corrupt, would probably look to bring in their own senior players or their own coaching staff, who would then do what they want them to do. That may only be spot fixing – trying to persuade other players to indulge in spot fixing.
“You might have two or three overs that are actually fixed, as opposed to the whole result, and then obviously they would have their contacts who would be betting on that. So that is how a franchise would do corruption within their franchise.
“It’s the players in these tournaments who are vulnerable. If you get a player at the wrong time in their life, when things are difficult for them, they may be having problems in their personal life or financial problems, and in the short term, this might appear to them to be the way of resolving it. But actually it just brings more trouble for them. It’s the players that need to be protected. And that goes back to having robust, operationally independent anti-corruption services.”
Richardson highlighted how many owners for franchises only emerge in the final weeks before a tournament, after previous owners pull out, as a “high risk” for the sport.
“It shouldn’t be allowed,” he said. “There should be proper due diligence done on owners. Now it might be that you have substitute owners waiting to come in, if somebody doesn’t pay their financial dues before a tournament. Then, fine, you switch somebody in – but you need to have already done the due diligence on that person, not just accept the next bus that comes along.
“That’s not what happens at the moment, people get substituted in as an owner at the last minute, not giving the opportunity to have the due diligence. The boards aren’t necessarily geared up for doing that due diligence in a robust way that protects the sport.”
Richardsons advocated that, before each competition, players’ fees should be placed in escrow accounts to ensure payment – to guarantee that leagues can pay players. He also supports a worldwide ban on players ‘double dipping’, and picking up new contracts in separate leagues after they have been eliminated from a previous competition.
“It leads to all sorts of vulnerabilities,” he said. “If players don’t have buy-in to the franchise that they’re contracted to, then that is just another factor in making tournaments and players vulnerable to corruption.”
Telegraph Sport revealed on Wednesday that Richard Gould, the chief executive of the England & Wales Cricket Board, plans to stop issuing players No Objection Certificates to enter a new league when their team in a league at the same time has been eliminated. Richardson would like to see other countries take the same approach.