Mumbai // Fans at stadiums and guests at team hotels are under surveillance at the World Twenty20 as cricket tries to eradicate the scourge of match-fixing, according to the game's top anti-corruption troubleshooter.
Ronnie Flanagan, head of the International Cricket Council’s Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU), said that his team was leaving no stone unturned during the tournament in India which runs until April 3.
“We conduct recces (reconnaissance) of the hotels where the players are going to stay. We stay at the same hotel and we conduct vigilance in terms of all those who try to seek access to the players,” he said.
The ICC’s ACU has long been accused of being a paper tiger, focused mainly on educating players against corruption but doing little actual intervention.
Flanagan, formerly one of Britain’s most senior police officers, said the body was increasing monitoring as the rise of short-form cricket provides more opportunities for corruption.
“I think we now know what we have to contend with and we are increase our resources accordingly in terms of the level of vigilance that we must maintain to thwart the activities of those who would seek to exploit the growth of cricket for their evil means,” he explained.
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That includes scouring team hotels and match venues, including supporters’ sections and restricted players’ areas, for signs of anyone who appears on the ACU’s database of suspected corrupters.
Hotels have been the setting for some of cricket’s biggest scandals.
The late Hansie Cronje made an offer to three teammates in an Indian hotel room during cricket’s most sensational scandal in 2000, which led to the ACU’s creation.
Cronje, South Africa captain at the time, was banned for life before dying in a plane crash two years later.
In 2010, a spot-fixing scandal at Lord’s led to the imprisonment of Pakistani players Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif.
Read more: Pakistan first-class cricket team give Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif their chance
An undercover journalist posing as head of a betting syndicate handed over 140,000 pounds at a London hotel to an agent who promised Amir and Mohammad Asif would deliver no-balls in a Test match against England.
Some of the money was later found in the players’ rooms.
And in 2013, former Test paceman Shanthakumaran Sreesanth and two uncapped bowlers were arrested on charges of spot-fixing at a Mumbai hotel following an Indian Premier League match.
Sreesanth and Ajit Chandila were acquitted of criminal charges but banned from cricket for life.
Flanagan said investigators were also “keeping vigilance generally at the ground”, in restricted areas and in the stands, and were keeping a particular eye on spectators with mobile phones.
“Recently a phenomenon has crept in known as ‘pitch siders’,” he said in a video interview in Mumbai.
“These people seek to take advantage of the time lapse between a broadcast and an event that’s actually happened and where it’s being viewed, perhaps in parts of the Indian sub-continent.
“If they have people in the ground giving a ball-by-ball account on a mobile phone they can get ahead of the actual broadcast.
“They’re not any longer betting on the probability of you being caught or the possibility of you being caught out. You’ve actually been caught out.”
Corruption raised its ugly head again in January when former South African international Gulam Bodi admitted attempting to fix domestic T20 matches.
Proteas’ all-rounder JP Duminy believes cricket is “on the right path in terms of beating corruption” but admits that it is hard to legislate.
“Unfortunately it comes down to the individual and what’s the most important thing to that individual,” he told reporters in Mumbai.
“I like to think that to all cricketers around the world the most important thing is upholding the legacy of the game and that is to play cricket out on the field and not anywhere else.”
India poses a particular challenge owing to the massive popularity of the game and the fact that betting is illegal and difficult to regulate.
Shantanu Ray Guha, who has written a book on cricket corruption, said India’s betting market was akin to a “parallel economy”.
“Whether the ICC can clean this up, I have my serious doubts,” he said.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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