5 min readChennaiApr 17, 2026 11:20 PM IST
The International Cricket Council’s Anti-Corruption Unit is probing allegations of corruption in Cricket Canada, which includes an alleged spot-fixing episode in Canada’s T20 World Cup 2026 match against New Zealand. According to sources in the ICC, it is learnt that two investigations are running in parallel with regard to international and domestic fixtures.
On Friday, The Fifth Estate aired a documentary titled ‘Corruption, Crime and Cricket’ on the public broadcaster CBC, where a wide-ranging set of accusations were made against Cricket Canada with regards to governance, team selection and match-related conduct at the international and domestic levels. In a stunning revelation, the documentary also claimed that the Lawrence Bishnoi gang is involved in the activities.
An anonymous individual – whose identity was protected for safety reasons – alleged that the gang threatened a prominent Canadian player and played a role in Cricket Canada naming the 22-year-old Dilpreet Bajwa as Canada’s captain in an eleventh-hour decision ahead of the T20 World Cup, which surprised the coach, the manager and the teammates. The captaincy switch happened when the team landed in Sri Lanka for their pre-tournament preparations and after a send-off event in Brampton, where their long-standing player Nicholas Kirton appeared to be the captain.
NZ clash in focus
In the documentary, the match in question is Canada’s group fixture against New Zealand in Chennai. The fifth over of New Zealand’s innings is under scanner where Bajwa, a frontline batsman, brought himself on to bowl after Canada’s new ball bowlers had taken two wickets early in the chase of 174. Bajwa starts the over with a no-ball and then delivers a wide down the leg-side, conceding 15 runs. According to the documentary, soon after the match, Bajwa didn’t attend a team meeting and instead was summoned by the ICC’s ACU team, which seized his mobile phone and conducted a thorough search. It is learnt that the incident is still under investigation, with the ICC unable to share any details of it as it is an ‘ongoing investigation.’
According to the documentary, the signs were there before their opening match against South Africa in Ahmedabad. The documentary claims it received a text message from an individual named ‘Pintu’ who has links to the betting world. The documentary claimed that the message from Pintu read: “Our source in the betting world told us a script is available for the Canada match, players whom we can bet on before the match.”
Other instances
However, the match in Chennai isn’t the first instance where ICC’s ACU came to learn about the alleged corrupt practices. A year back in May 2025, a phone recording had emerged where Canada’s former coach Khurram Chohan claims he received phone calls from Cricket Canada’s board members to select certain players to the team. In that audio, Chohan claims, “They asked me to fix the match…they said they will arrange the team and ‘you will make them play’. I said, “Have you gone mad? What do you mean?”
Chohan then speaks about Canada’s game against Bermuda, soon after, when he was asked to play the match with a certain batting order. “They said this is the batting order and that’s how the team would go,” he says in the audio that was aired in the documentary. Chohan went on to claim that he didn’t follow the instructions, and Canada eventually won the game, after which he recalls getting a phone call from Salman Khan, who was the CEO of Cricket Canada then. “He (Salman) yelled, ‘What did you do?’ I asked ‘What happened?’ He said, ‘We made a team with you. We gave you the whole batting order. We told you who will play and who will not. What did you do?” Chohan says. This match that the former coach refers to is also part of ICC’s investigation now.
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In the documentary, the former Sri Lankan player Pubudu Dassanayake, who coached Canada before Chohan, claimed that before the 2024 T20 World Cup, Cricket Canada officials tried to force him into selection. And when he didn’t oblige, he was threatened with termination. As things stand, Dassanayake is suing Cricket Canada for wrongful dismissal.
With regards to the involvement of the Bishnoi gang, another anonymous individual, whose face is hidden and voice is altered to ensure safety and is involved in Canada Cricket, reveals an incident where a prominent player was threatened in a restaurant. “A national player was threatened. A couple of players and a few other individuals came to his table; they were a bit aggressive. They asked him to step outside the restaurant. And took him outside. He is like, ‘If you don’t support these two guys in the team, then we will tell you who Lawrence Bishnoi is. These guys have to be taken and shouldn’t be dropped from the team. If they do, you are in trouble,” the individual alleges, saying the main player they wanted to be protected was Bajwa.
