New Delhi:
After Brad Haddin and Shane Watson, two more Australian cricketers have alleged that they were approached by the match fixer during Australia's tour to England last year.
According to a report issued by Cricket Australia, Brett Lee and Mitchell Johnson were also approached by the same Indian gangster who had earlier tried to lure Haddin and Watson.
The report also suggests that all four players rebuffed all offers made by the fixer and instead chose to alarm the team manager. This was later communicated to the ICC too.
A report published in the
Sydney Morning Herald on Tuesday morning had suggested that Watson and Haddin, were approached by the Indian gangster with links to illegal bookmakers during Australia's tour of England last year and then the T20 World Cup.
The newspaper report said both cricketers reported the incident to authorities and neither was suspected of any wrongdoing. It also said that the same man approached other international cricketers, an official from Cricket Australia and a member of the media during the T20 World Cup in England.
The ICC's Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU) is believed to have started investigating this.
Pakistan's Australian tour in January this year, particularly the Sydney Test, has now come under scrutiny after a British tabloid published details of a sting operation where a bookie boasted of how he had fixed matches.
However it has now emerged that the ICC's ACSU had told three countries in the sub-continent to keep a close watch on their players. One of the tainted Pakistani players Mohamed Asif's former girlfriend Veena Mallik claims that the bowler had told her that Pakistan would not win any match till 2010.