An anti-corruption official reprimanded Pakistan’s players for wearing smart watches on the opening day of the first Test at Lord’s, ordering players to stop wearing them.
“An ICC anti-corruption officer came to us and told us this is not allowed,” said Pakistan player Hasan Ali. “So next time nobody will wear them.”
“I didn't know earlier that anyone was wearing one.”
Smart watches must be disabled to comply with ICC anti-corruption regulations. Two Pakistani players - Babar Azam and Asad Shafiq - appeared to be wearing the watches during the day, though there is no suggestion of any wrongdoing in this instance.
The ICC prohibits Apple watches in any way connected to a phone or WiFi or capable of receiving communications such as messages. Such watches are considered phones - which are disabled under the ICC’s rules for players and match officials - unless they are disabled, meaning they are offline and just used as watches. In this instance, it is unclear or not whether the watches were on or disabled.
The reaction to players wearing the watches reflects the heightened sensitivity around corruption in cricket, which remains a huge concern for the ICC. At Lord’s in 2010, three Pakistan players - including Mohammad Amir, who is playing in this game - were implicated in one of the biggest corruption scandals in the sport’s history, over deliberately bowling no-balls to order.
Should they choose to do so, the ICC is entitled to download all the material from the smart watches to monitor activity. Last year, the ICC’s anti-corruption unit gained the power to force players to hand over their mobile phones - including all activity on instant messaging services such as WhatsApp - as part of attempts to curb the risk of corruption.
In the final three months of last year, three international captains - including Pakistan’s Sarfraz Ahmed - reported illegal approaches from bookmakers to the ICC. While the governing body believes that such reports show that players understand their responsibilities to safeguard the integrity of the sport, the approaches show that criminals continue to believe that some players are susceptible to match-fixing. The head of the international players’ association, Tony Irish, has also recently warned that women cricketers are likely to be targeted too as the sport becomes more prominent.
Smart watches have previously been used illicitly in Major League Baseball. Last year, the Boston Red Sox were found to have used the watches to inform their batsmen of the signs used by pitchers during matches, informing the batsmen of the pitches they would then face.
The reprimand from the ICC’s anti-corruption unit ended a day which Pakistan had dominated, as they reached 50-1 in reply to England’s 184 - the lowest first innings total of any Test match in England since 2009. England required 70 from Alastair Cook, a return to form after a dreadful tour of New Zealand, to even reach that mark.
