The former Australian cricket captain Steve Waugh believes there is a place for lie detector tests in the war against corruption in cricket, after taking one himself.
Waugh heads the MCC World Cricket Committee’s (WCC) Anti-corruption Working Party. The WCC declared, at its meeting at Lord’s in July, its belief that the use of polygraph tests, though sensitive as a subject, should be widely debated. The Committee accepts that the use of polygraphs tests is a sensitive subject but their potential use should now be widely debated in the game. The Working Party hopes to meet, in the near future, with the cricket ruling body International Cricket Council (ICC) Dubai-based Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU), to present MCC’s analysis of polygraph testing.
Players must feel that there is a genuine risk of being caught and so the ICC ACSU should aim to increase their investigative powers by whatever means, including the use of ‘sting’ operations. Waugh undertook a lie detector test earlier this year under the guidance of one of Australia’s leading polygraph examiners, Steven Van Aperen, which he passed convincingly.
Waugh accepted there were obstacles to overcome but reiterated his belief that the use of lie detector tests could play an important role in stamping out corruption.
He said: “Right now the only people that have been caught have been caught by accident or by the media so it suggests that it is very hard to catch people who are doing the wrong thing.
“It’s not meant to be a witch hunt; it’s an option going forward. This is a possibility for people to clear their name or commit that they are going to do the right thing in the future.”
Waugh, who played 168 Tests and 326 One Day Internationals for Australia, admitted that the WCC was still in the embryonic stages of determining a full strategy on corruption. He was positive though about progress since becoming Chairman of the new corruption Working Party following the last WCC meeting in Perth late last year. The former Australia skipper added that attention at the recent meeting had turned towards developing a strategy for the future – and that lie detector tests could play a role.
“It’s now a case of finding out how we progress – legally we can’t force anyone to take a lie detector test.” added the 46-year-old, who retired in 2004. “Maybe you could go the other way and get some young ambassadors, advocates, who commit to the game and maybe every so often could take and redo the polygraph test.
“But I think it’s almost about creating a movement of people who are saying ‘we’re going to play cricket in the right spirit’ and getting people behind that. Hopefully this is the impetus to start that.”
Young but established international players and captains from each country should be promoted as ambassadors and role models who pledge to educate and protect other young players, the WCC says. Education to emerging players of the methods used by the corruptors is essential and the ICC ACSU must continue to work as hard as possible in this area, says the WCC.
