Illegal bookmaker Approached Australian Ashes Player
(Credit: Gambling911)

A suspected illegal bookmaker is accused of approaching an Australian Ashes player after the second Test at Lord's, according to Jamie Pandaram reporting for The Brisbane Times. The matter is now under investigation by the ICC after Australia's team manager Steve Bernard filed a report.

The alleged bookie sought out the unnamed player in the bar of the team's London hotel, the Royal Kensington Garden, following Australia's Ashes defeat at Lord's last month, the Times reports.

From Pandaram's piece:

The emergence of high-profile Twenty20 tournaments, the IPL and ICL, has fuelled speculation the illegal bookmakers have returned to glean information from cricketers as they did in the 1980s and '90s when a string of notorious cases gained publicity.

The late South African captain Hansie Cronje was among a list of high-profile players found guilty of match fixing, but no international has been reported since Samuels.

In July, the ICC held meetings to discuss the potential threat bookmakers posed to the Twenty20 format of the game, and it is believed some illegal bookies approached players during this year's Twenty20 World Cup.

Greg Tingle of Media Man Australia: "The ongoing trend of untoward activities occurring in and around the Australian sports betting world. Player approaches by illegal bookmakers, illegal sports betting pyramid ponzi schemes on the Gold Coast, hackers launching attacts on Australian based sports betting websites, ACMA blacklisting (reportable) on Betfair, but not some other websites.

"When will the carnage stop. I seriously doubt further regulation of the Australian sports betting and larger gambling industry will stop the shenanigans. The ongoing struggle between good and bad goes back to Adam and Eve, or God and The Devil, if you prefer. In the sports wagering world it's very much a case of buyer beware."