Australia is closing legislative loopholes to fight sports-related corruption, but needs to allow police to share more information with sports administrators, former International Cricket Council (ICC) boss Malcolm Speed has said.
Speed, ICC chief executive from 2001-2008, now heads the Coalition of Major Professional and Participation Sports, an advocacy group representing the governing bodies of top Australian sports including cricket, rugby and soccer.
Australia has been on the front foot drafting legislation to fight betting-related corruption and convicted two British soccer players in Victoria state in December last year using new legislative powers.
Speed welcomed a move by Australia’s Queensland state, announced this week, to introduce legislation targeted at betting-related crime in sports, but said bureaucracy was slowing the fight against corruption.
“It’d be great if police forces had increased capacity to share information with sporting bodies about suspicious activity,” Speed said by telephone on Tuesday.
“The police forces are restrained by legislation in some states from providing that information. It might be that police forces see a player who is not committing a criminal offence, but is associating with known criminals. They are limited in their ability to pass that information to sporting bodies,” he said. “The sporting bodies, particularly the AFL [Australian Football League], have been pushing for that wider power for some time.”
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was