England Test captain, Andrew Strauss, believes that International Cricket Council (ICC)’s anti-corruption unit is "woefully under-resourced" to curb the evil of match-fixing in cricket.
Strauss said that it is extremely difficult to detect and prove the offense, therefore, cricket’s international governing body needs to pump up its strength in order to fight against wide spread corruption in the sport.
"The only input I've had is with the anti-corruption people who came round during the World Cup. It seems to me that they are woefully under-resourced. I just don't think they've got the resources to do it properly," Strauss said.
Although, the classy left-hander cited Sub-continent as the haven for the fixers, he admitted that the evil has its roots all across the globe.
He uttered that even though most of the betting seems to be going on in the South Asian countries, there is no doubt that cricketers from around the world are involved in corruption.
ICC has claimed to adopt zero-tolerance policy regarding match-fixing but the English skipper is not happywith the measures and wants ICC to find new ways to catch fixers.
Expressing his dissatisfaction over the steps being taken by ICC to nab fixing, Strauss said, "My gut feeling is there is more to it than we know about. I haven't seen any resolve to deal with the issue. It is hard for me to comment because I don't know what's going on behind closed doors.”
Strauss, who is the only third English skipper after Sir Len Hutton and Mike Brearley to lead his country to Ashes series triumphs home and away, is considered as one of the best Test skippers in the history of English Test cricket. He has served his country in 82 Test and has scored over 6000 runs at a fine average of 43.14.
Strauss was leading the English side in the infamous Test at Lord’s Cricket Ground against Pakistan in 2010, during which three Pakistani players, Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif, worked together to deliver deliberate no-balls.
Strauss hoped that the things will get better in the future. However, he stated it clearly that ICC is still not even near to the solution of the problem of fixing.
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