English cricket chiefs have offered an amnesty to players to report past match-fixing approaches after former Essex bowler Mervyn Westfield pleaded guilty to spot-fixing at the Old Bailey. Westfield, 23, the first player to admit to a corruption charge in a county match, entered a guilty plea to charges of accepting or obtaining a corrupt payment to bowl in a way that would allow the scoring of runs. He received £6,000 ($9,199) to bowl so that 12 runs would be scored in the first over of a match against Durham in September 2009, although in fact only 10 were scored. A separate charge of assisting another person to cheat at gambling was ordered to lie on file. Westfield, who will be sentenced on February 10, was told by Judge Anthony Morris on Thursday: “It’s open to the court in this case to pass an immediate custodial sentence.”
Morris added the name of the other party involved in the deal would be known to cricket fans, but it was not revealed in court. An international cricketer was arrested alongside Westfield but later released without charge. It is already an offence under England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) regulations for players to fail to report approaches related to corrupt activities. But the governing body, at a meeting Thursday, established a “window” until April 30 whereby players can report previous approaches without the threat of ECB punishment.
Chris Watts, information manager to the ECB’s Anti-Corruption Commission for Education, Standards and Security (ACCESS), said: “Information is critical in addressing the threat posed by corruption in sport. “Individuals may not have thought these approaches were worthy of reporting at the time and, prior to the decision of the board, may have been concerned that the fact that they did not report such activity may have put them at risk of disciplinary action.”
