London, June 7: The International Cricket Council said Tuesday they had improved their procedures for handling evidence of match-fixing after coming under fire from Brendon McCullum.
The former New Zealand captain, delivering the MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture at Lord's on Monday, recalled his anger that the evidence he gave against his old international team-mate Chris Cairns in a match-fixing court case in London last year was leaked prior to trial.
"How can the game's governing body expect players to cooperate with it when it is then responsible for leaking confidential statements to the media?" McCullum, now playing for Lord's-based Middlesex in English cricket's domestic Twenty20 competition, said Monday.
The legal case ended with Cairns found not guilty and McCullum said he should have been given more warning from the outset of first giving evidence to the ICC in 2011 that he could be called as a witness in a court action.
"I think players deserve better from the ICC and that, in the future, the evidence gathering exercise has to be much more thorough, more professional.
"In my opinion a person taking a statement should ensure that the witness is advised about what may occur."
Responding to McCullum's address the ICC acknowledged his stance but insisted they had not been the source of the leak.
"The ICC commended Brendon McCullum two years ago -- and continues to do so today -- for his brave, courageous and principled stand against corruption in cricket," the global governing body said in a statement.
"The ICC also understood and shared his dismay at the leak of his confidential statement, which prompted a thorough and detailed investigation by the ICC.
"While the probe proved that the origin of the leak was not from within the ICC, it failed to establish beyond doubt the actual source.
"Nevertheless, the ICC has already put strong measures in place to ensure this type of incident is never repeated."
The statement added: "In 2014 (and unrelated to the leak of confidential information), a comprehensive review of the ICC Anti-Corruption Unit was carried out to review its processes, functions and resources. The review was conducted by the ICC's Integrity Working Party (IWP), which included independent corruption experts.
"All the recommendations of the IWP were reviewed and adopted by the ICC Board during the 2015 ICC Annual Conference in Barbados.
"Every event or incident provides an organisation with opportunities to review its structures and measure its operations against best practice. This is exactly what the ICC has done in this particular case -- it believes the outcome has been processes, procedures and resources which have been further bolstered and strengthened.    ?AFP