Australia all-rounder Glenn Maxwell has expressed disappointment on the indirect spot-fixing allegations in the Al Jazeera sting operation during their 2017 Ranchi Test.
Australia all-rounder Glenn Maxwell has expressed disappointment over the spot-fixing allegations in the Al Jazeera sting operation during their 2017 Ranchi Test match against India. The sting operation showed that some of the Australian players were allegedly involved in the spot-fixing during the Test match. Though Maxwell wasn’t directly involved in the scandal but the time referred shows that the right-hander had a part in it.
While speaking to SEN Radio, Maxwell who scored a hundred in that Test match said that it was one of the special moments in his career.
“I was shocked. I was a bit hurt by it as well,” he said. “To have these allegations about your involvement in a game where you’ve only got happy memories about it, great memories… I still remember the feeling after hugging Steve Smith after getting my maiden Test hundred,” he said.
“To have that tarnished by these allegations was pretty devastating and obviously there’s absolutely no truth to it whatsoever. It was 100% unfair, to tarnish one of the best moments of my career was pretty brutal. The only thing they could have done worse was tarnish that [2015] World Cup win. They’re two of the best moments of my career. To say I’d done anything untoward in that game, when I’d just finally got back in the Test side – I’d worked my absolute backside off – to say I’d do anything to ruin that would be absolutely ridiculous,” Maxwell added.
Maxwell further added that he had been very honest with the anti-corruption officers whenever he had found something “amiss” especially during the T20 leagues like IPL.
“I’ve been very honest with them [anti-corruption officers] the whole way through with the IPL,” he said. “If I’ve ever seen anything untoward I always sat down with them, had a long coffee and just talked about everything to make sure nothing ever, ever comes back to me. If there’s anything slightly amiss, I always give them a call and make sure they have every bit of evidence they can possibly have. There’s some things you see in the game of cricket where you’re always just a little bit unsure. All the things you do hear in the game, and when it comes out later on you go, ‘Oh, I swear I could have noticed that while I was watching it.”
“It was probably easier when I was captain and I was able to see the way the game was going, and the instructions that I was giving players, and the way the game was moving, I could actually work it out a little better. There wasn’t really anything untoward in the season I was captain, but you could certainly tell from opposition stuff and that’s why I reported certain things,” Maxwell said.
