Officials, players to face Twitter ban during Cricket World Cup 2011
ICC's Anti-Corruption and Security Unit move to negate corruption
The International Cricket Council (ICC) will ban all Twitter posts by team officials during this year's World Cup matches.
However, the decision, an initiative of ICC's Anti-Corruption and Security Unit, will exempt players and officials of the ban when their sides are not playing matches.
In recent times, cricket has been mired in corruption including spot fixing allegations that involved Pakistan and some Twitter posts. But the ICC chiefs have said the new precaution is an extension of the ban of mobile phone usage by players during matches.
ICC spokesman James Fitzgerald told AFP that the international body has a zero-tolerance approach to corruption and anything that can negate that possibility is something it is interested in.
Fitzgerald said, "This is just a precaution, it's not something we are overly concerned about. But we do feel a team manager's phone should be used for operational purposes only during matches."
"This applies to all teams and this decision has not been taken in response to anything the Australia team manager has said or done previously."
Earlier, reports said that Australian team manager Steve Bernard's Twitter account had attracted more than 1,100 followers in the past six months when Australia played some important matches.
Source:CBR Staff Writer
