ICC Continue Current Crackdown on Twitter Usage

In an apparent bid to to tackle corruption in cricket during the World Cup this month, the International Cricket Council (ICC) have banned players and officials alike from using social networking site Twitter.

The real-time information network is seemingly growing less and less popular with sporting bodies, with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Football Association (FA) both releasing guidelines for usage from the world’s sporting icons.

The move by the ICC however, is reportedly for differing reasons according to the Sydney Morning Herald, who claim that the ban has been introduced following Australian team manager Steve Bernard’s tweets which attracted more than 1,100 followers in the past six months, including during Ashes and the subsequent ODI series

The decision of ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit was intended to restrain the players and officials from any possible approach by people with links to illegal betting during World Cup matches.

The Sydney Morning Herald quoted ICC spokesman James Fitzgerald as saying: “When it comes to issues of corruption we prefer to err on the side of caution. We don’t want to spoil anyone’s fun but there is a chance that sensitive information could be passed on during matches in this way, even inadvertently, and we just feel that team managers’ phones should be kept for operational purposes only.”

“This recommendation is not confined to the Australia team manager but all teams in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 and is certainly not a reaction to anything the Australia team manager has said or done in the past. It’s merely a precaution and is not something we are overly worried about at this stage,” he added.