Cricket’s anti-corruption unit is investigating a series of franchise owners over allegations of instigating match-fixing, Telegraph Sport can reveal.

A number of owners in the 2018 edition of the Afghanistan Premier League could face civil charges of corruption by the International Cricket Council’s Anti-Corruption Unit.

The ACU is concluding a number of investigations into the 2018 edition of the Afghanistan Premier League, many of them involving team owners themselves. It is understood this process is likely to lead to a series of formal charges lodged against owners and their associates.

The revelations highlight a new frontier in corruption in cricket, with owners themselves accused of driving fixing within their own teams. Some owners, it is alleged, recruit some players to deliberately under-perform.

They are then accused of betting against their own teams on betting markets – the vast majority of which remain unregulated and almost impossible to trace – guaranteeing themselves a profit far exceeding the prize money for winning leagues.

In such situations, players – especially less well-paid local cricketers – can be placed in an almost impossible situation. Retaining their contracts depends on their owners, meaning that they can either under-perform or allegedly go against their owners’ wishes and face not gaining another contract.