Australian cricket offers amnesty to whistleblowers

Cricket Australia is hoping that offering a period of amnesty to those who inform the federation of any known illegal activity within the sport will help ensure that players, officials or administrators who have been involved in corrupt behavior will come to a day.

"We think this is a responsible approach to protecting the game under our jurisdiction. We need to ensure the Australian public has full faith in the integrity of the game and the way it is administered," said Iain Roy, Cricket Australia’s senior manager of integrity, according to ABC News.

The amnesty will only be on until November 30 2014 and is granted to those who inform of knowledge about corrupt behavior surrounding the sport, but not necessarily to those who have participated in it.

“Where a person who makes a disclosure is implicated in the misconduct, Cricket Australia will use all reasonable efforts to protect the individual from reprisals; however the act of reporting improper conduct may not shield the person from the reasonable consequences flowing from any involvement in serious misconduct,” it says on the hotline website.

According to the anti-corruption codes of both Cricket Australia and the International Cricket Council, failing to report corrupt activity can result in lengthy suspensions, large fines and compulsory participation in counselling programmes, writes espn.cricinfo.com.

"We hope that granting a short amnesty period in relation to any previous non-reporting of relevant facts will encourage anyone with information to come forward," Roy said to ABC.

"Facilitating greater sharing of information will assist us in building a more complete picture of the nature and extent of corrupt approaches that may have taken place previously.”