Malcolm Speed backs Oz 10-yr jail term law to deter match-fixers

Melbourne, June 10(ANI): Former International Cricket Council (ICC) Chief Executive Malcolm Speed has backed the multi-sport crackdown on match fixing in Australia, which is calling for ten-year jail terms for guilty parties.

The Chief Executive's of Australia's seven major codes - Cricket Australia, AFL, ARU, FFA, Netball Australia, the NRL and Tennis Australia - had put their wide ranging anti-corruption strategy to Australian Sports Minister Mark Arbib earlier this week.

And at Council of Australian Governments (COAG) on the Gold Coast, the national policy on match-fixing in sport was agreed by the state Sports Mnisters.

A working group will now come up with a plan on how to implement the national policy, which will be presented to the Sports Ministers in three months.

"Our work shows that sports need to make this a priority, with robust codes of conduct dealing specifically with betting-related corruption. These need to be supported with sports-specific criminal laws for serious cases," Speed wrote in an article for The Punch.

"Ten-year prison terms are pretty serious punishments, but it is a serious issue. If crooks undermine public confidence in a sport, that sport and all that it brings in terms of public enjoyment, national pride, promotion of healthy lifestyles, economic activity and employment of thousands is compromised."

"We only suggest 10 years behind bars for the most serious offences, and expect that such cases would be very rare. But the deterrent effect would be permanent and would help scare off the match fixers," he added. (ANI)