(Reuters) – Australia test and one-day captain Michael Clarke has defended his players against match-fixing allegations after a sports agent said the country’s top cricketers were “the biggest” culprits.
Mazhar Majeed, accused by prosecutors of taking bribes to fix matches, also said that Australian cricketers had fixed “brackets”, a set period of a match on which punters bet, a London court heard on Monday.
The accusation drew a scornful response from Cricket Australia earlier this week and Clarke said yesterday he was “very confident” no Australian players were involved.
“For me personally, it’s not the Australian way,” Clarke told reporters in Sydney before boarding a plane for the tour of South Africa.
“Never in my time have I experienced a conversation with anybody about any such thing. “There’s obviously been a couple of occasions when guys have been approached and that’s been reported to our team manager and the ICC … so all the boys in the Australian team are aware that it is happening, it is going on.
“But it’s never involved me and I’m very confident it’s never involved any of the Australian players.”
Clarke’s comments come as the trial involving spot-fixing allegations against former Pakistan captain Salman Butt and bowler Mohammad Asif continues in London.
Prosecutors allege that Majeed conspired with Butt and fast bowlers Asif and Mohammad Amir to fix parts of the Lord’s test between England and Pakistan last August.
Clarke will lead Australia in three one-day internationals and two tests against South Africa this month and next month.
