Cricket-Twenty20 'ripe for corruption' says players union head

LONDON Feb 16 (Reuters) - International players' union FICA chief executive Tim May has warned that Twenty20 cricket is "ripe for corruption" and urged the sport's administrators to exercise extreme care.

"Twenty20 is just ripe for corruption -- the shorter the game the more influence each particular incident can have," the former Australia off-spinner said in an interview in the March issue of The Wisden Cricketer magazine which goes on sale this Friday.

"So I think it opens up a great deal of opportunities for the bookmakers to try and corrupt players into providing various different outcomes in the game, if not the result itself. Cricket needs to be very, very careful."

May was also critical of the way the Indian Premier League's (IPL) dealings with players.

"The refusal to grant players the ability to review the security arrangements and the decision of the IPL and its franchises not to recognise or deal with any players' managers or agents, is self-defeating," he said.

"Its decision-making is very arrogant. The attitude is that they're the only game in town, they're the biggest game in town and, as long as they pay these huge amounts of money, they can do what they like. That may not always be the case."

(Reporting by Mitch Phillips; Editing by John Mehaffey; To comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)