Lou Vincent's confessions of a cricket fixer REVEALED... Crooked Kiwi says Asian bookies fixed English county matches



Former New Zealand batsman Lou Vincent claims he was offered a woman and cash to fix matches

Vincent also says he was threatened by a world-famous international after a fix failed to come off

He identifies three games in England between 2008 and 2011 which involved fixing

It is understood that two Sussex matches in which Vincent played are under investigation

Vincent told ICC investigators that he began fixing in the Twenty20 Indian Cricket League in 2008



English cricket is facing one of its darkest hours following allegations by former New Zealand batsman Lou Vincent of corruption in the county game.

In a string of shocking claims, he says he was offered a woman and cash to fix matches by corrupt bookies and threatened by a world-famous international who moaned — after a fix failed to come off — that Vincent had cost him ‘millions’.



In a report compiled by the International Cricket Council, the game’s governing body, and seen by Sportsmail, Vincent lifts the lid on match-fixing, accusing at least six players he believes were involved in corruption.



Dark hour: New Zealander Lou Vincent (front) has made allegations of corruption in the county game

He identifies 12 games around the world which involved fixing — three of them in England between 2008 and 2011 — and justifies his involvement by telling the ICC that his county contract with Sussex was ‘only for £22,000’.



Signs that the fixes were ‘on’ ranged from the colour of Vincent’s bat handle to pulling away when the bowler was running in.



It is understood that two Sussex matches in which Vincent played are under investigation: a CB40 game at Hove against Kent on August 23 2011 and a Twenty20 quarter-final on August 8, 2011 against Lancashire. A Twenty20 match against Durham on June 17, 2008, when Vincent was playing for Lancashire, is also being investigated.



Vincent, who played 23 Tests and 102 one-day internationals and last appeared for New Zealand in 2007, told ICC investigators he began fixing in 2008 in the Twenty20 Indian Cricket League for a world-famous former international. We know the identity of the cricketer but cannot name him for legal reasons.



‘When you’re under whatever this power is that XXX has over me, I felt I couldn’t say “no” to him . . . I didn’t want to throw away the chance of getting all that money,’ Vincent is quoted as saying in ICC documents.



Vincent told the anti-corruption and security unit of the sport’s governing body that he was involved in the rigging of four matches from March to April 2008 when he was playing for ICL side Chandigarh Lions.



Out of line: Vincent threw his wicket in matches but on this occasion against Lancashire in a T20 quarter-final, defied his paymasters

An Indian, known as VG, approached him about a bat sponsorship deal and Vincent met him in his hotel room where he was greeted by a woman. VG gave him $15,000 and said the woman was a ‘present’. Vincent said he was not interested and asked him to put the money in the room safe.



Vincent then went to the room of his superstar friend to tell him what had happened. Chillingly, the star is understood to have said ‘you are now working for me’.



He is also said to have told Vincent that his long battle with depression, which ended his international career, was ‘perfect’ to help him fix.

Old team: It is understood that two Sussex matches in which Vincent played are under investigation

The ICC are now investigating three 2008 Chandigarh matches:against Mumbai Champs on March 25, Kolkata Tigers on March 26 and Hyderabad Heroes on March 29, as well as the ICL World Series final between the World XI and ICL India XI on April 15 2008.

Investigators have also identified two other players who they believe were part of the match-fixing ring.



Vincent’s instructions were always the same. He was told to score around 10 to 15 off 20 balls and then get out. Having learned the tricks of a scandalous trade, Vincent would soon employ them in the county game, trying to corrupt team-mates and throwing his wicket away for money. Throughout the ICL, Vincent says he passed on information to VG about the fixes that had been organised and received £20,000.



However, when he failed to keep his side of the bargain, he felt the wrath of the international star who was pulling the strings.



For the World Series match Vincent was, as usual, expected to score 15 or so off 20 balls and then get out. But in attempting to get stumped, he accidentally hit the ball for six. ‘I thought “what have I done,”’ Vincent told the ICC.



On the coach back to their hotel, XXX refused to speak to Vincent, who says he is owed $200,000 by the player for the ICL corruption, but later demanded he visit him in his room. ‘He waved a bat around close to my head and threatened to hit me with it. He said I’d cost him millions and accused me of fixing for someone else.’



It was this confrontation which ensured that Vincent, who was eager to please his friend, brought corruption to England in 2008. After playing Lancashire League cricket for Ramsbottom, Lancashire offered him a contract.



Two days before the game against Durham, XXX met him at a motorway service station near Nottingham and told him that he needed to prove trust and loyalty to him because of the fix that had gone wrong in the ICL. He was told to contact Mal Loye, a former England player in the Lancashire team, to get him to be in on the fix while he agreed to ‘underperform’ himself.



‘Pretty much fail — not score any runs at all,’ said Vincent. ‘I asked him what he meant by this and he made it clear.He just said I’ve got to literally get out for very little. XXX told me that not only would I have to “underperform” in that game, but that I should speak to Loye and get him to “underperform”.’



Loye declined the approach. Vincent scored one run off five balls and Lancashire lost the match. He says he never received any money for the fix but felt he had proved himself to the star. ‘Looking back, I knew that what I was doing was wrong but I was just completely and utterly manipulated by XXX.’



Fix: Vincent has identified 12 games around the world which involved match fixing

After the second season of the ICL, where Vincent alleged more corruption involving Chandigarh, he had time out from the game, working as a builder and doing odd jobs in the UK before returning to New Zealand to play for Auckland Aces in Twenty20. He signed for Sussex for the 2011 season, prompting VG to get in contact and begin a new wave of corruption.



Initially, VG contacted him through Facebook and under his instruction Vincent bought a mobile phone and a new SIM card. VG would make sure he always had credit on the phone so they could be in contact and in June he gave Vincent an ‘advance’ of £5,000.



In August VG started to pressure Vincent to underperform. The Sussex v Lancashire quarter-final was targeted, with VG using the £5,000 payment as leverage to get Vincent to do what he wanted.



It is this match which reveals the extraordinary detail of corruption. It is not just as simple as making sure a team loses a match or a batsman gets out. Vincent was told to manipulate the strike and fix during ‘three-over slots’. ‘[VG] gave me a precise plan . . . I don’t recall exactly but it was, along the lines of, during the 10 overs that I’d score less than 14 runs.’



This suggests VG was attempting to manipulate the brackets market on the vast, illegal Indian system, when bookmakers offer gamblers the chance to bet higher or lower than a certain score in the first 10 overs.



A fixer with inside information will be able to make huge sums betting, knowing when the run rate will slow down or speed up because bookmakers change the runs quote after every ball.



International: Vincent (left) has represented New Zealand in Test and One Day International cricket

But according to Vincent, he failed to keep his bargain with VG. The pair had agreed Vincent would use a bat with a certain colour handle as a sign that it was on. At the last minute he changed his mind and did not use the colour handle that had been agreed because he wanted to ‘smash’ Lancashire after his unhappy spell at the club.



During other fixes, Vincent said there were more signals. ‘There was an occasion where I pulled away when the bowler was running in . . . to change bats after a particular over. It would be the following over that something would happen.’



VG spoke to Vincent after the match and told him that he was ‘very disappointed’.

In a sign that fixing was endemic in the county game, Vincent was introduced to another bookie, known as NG, who was from Pakistan, by a fellow county cricketer.



They met in a hotel in Brighton on August 22, 2011, when NG brought up the match against Kent the next day. NG gave Vincent a gift of perfume. ‘Then the conversation got to the point . . . making money from it illegally.’ NG told Vincent that other players were involved and asked if he was interested. ‘Yes,’ replied Vincent. ‘It was a simple instruction, we would underperform and Sussex would lose.’



Vincent then told VG about the plan so he could ‘make double the money’. VG told him to approach a Sussex batsman and offer him £20,000 to be in on the fix. But the player rejected it.



Bat in hand: Vincent (right) played for his country for six years between 2001 and 2007

This time there was no precise plan. No ‘three-over segment’. ‘It was straightforward, we underperform, Sussex loses.’



Vincent did underperform. He was run out for one off seven balls as Sussex’s innings stagnated.

Set 217 to win, Sussex were 76 for no wicket before the start of the 11th over. Just 22 balls later only seven runs had been added and they had lost four wickets.



After the game, another team-mate Vincent approached was furious. ‘He knew the game was fixed. I just wanted to get out of there.’ Vincent told the ICC he received £40,000 to throw the game — £25,000 from NG and £15,000 from VG.



Vincent told the ICC that he fixed for VG in the 2012 Twenty20 Champions League in South Africa for Auckland.



He also reported that he wanted to ‘overperform’ by scoring 30 runs in three overs in a match against Hampshire on October 10, but he scored only 19 from 16 balls.



Vincent told the ICC that he justified the fixes in England because his contract with Sussex was ‘only for £22,000’ and he was unhappy at how the ECB had made him wait three years for a British passport.



There will be thousands of cricket fans who may think that the regulations Vincent claimed were too stringent were anything but.

CHEATS WHO BLIGHTED THE GAME - BY ANDREW MAGEE

AUSTRALIA 1994: Shane Warne and Mark Waugh accept £3,000 and £2,500 from Indian bookie ‘John the bookmaker’ for pitch and weather condition info and are fined by their cricket board. SOUTH AFRICA

2000: Test captain Hansie Cronje is banned for life after admitting he accepted money from bookmakers to fix matches and offering team-mates cash to underperform. Shamed: South Africa Test captain Hansie Cronje was banned for life in 2000 INDIA 2000: Former Test captain Mohammad Azharuddin, who had scored more than 15,500 runs, is banned for life after he admits fixing three ODI matches. 2013: The country’s former fast bowler S Sreesanth is banned for life after accepting money to spot-fix during Indian Premier League games. Three other IPL players are also banned. KENYA 2004: The Kenyan Cricket Association ban their former captain Maurice Odumbe for five years for taking money from bookmakers. His ex-wife accuses six more players at his hearing. WEST INDIES

2008: Batsman Marlon Samuels is banned for two years for giving match-related information to an Indian bookmaker during the 2007 ODI series in India. Banned: West Indies batsman Marlon Samuels was given a two-year suspension in 2007 PAKISTAN 2011: Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer are banned for five years and jailed for spot-fixing during their 2010 tour of England. Agent Mazhar Majeed is also jailed. ENGLAND

2012: Former Essex cricketer Mervyn Westfield is jailed for four months after accepting £6,000 in a spot-betting scam. His former team-mate, leg-spinner Danish Kaneria, is later banned for life for his role in the scam.



Ed Hawkins’s book on corruption in cricket, ‘Bookie, Gambler, Fixer, Spy: A Journey to the Heart of Cricket’s Underworld’, was published in 2012 by Bloomsbury.