Australian cricket was hit in 1985 for sexual exploitation

SYDNEY: Australian cricketers said on Monday (January 3) they were assisting a police investigation into shock allegations that a cricketer under the age of 19 was sexually abused on tour in India and Sri Lanka in the 1980s.

Cricket Australia said it backed Jamie Mitchell, an Australian under the age of 19, whose allegations that he had been raped on tour by a team official were first reported by national broadcaster ABC on Sunday.

“We commend Jamie Mitchell for having the courage to talk about his experience, and we thank him for that,” the governing body said in a statement, adding that it “fully assisted” the police investigation.

“We have no tolerance for any kind of exploitation,” said Nick Hockley, head of Cricket Australia.

Mitchell told ABC he was sexually raped in Colombo on the last night of the tour in 1985.

A team official named in the ABC report denied guilty of misconduct and no charges have been filed.

“Instead of being the highlight of my cricket life, that tour has caused me trauma and suffering for several years,” Mitchell said in a statement his lawyers have published for the Australian media.

“Cricket Australia has the opportunity to stand out by facing this problem and doing the right thing.

“And that means transparency, starting with the right answers to many questions. I’m going to send a list of them to Cricket Australia.”

Former Australian captain Greg Chappell, who was a national voter at the time of the alleged attack, told Nine Entertainment newspapers he was shocked by the allegations.

“I would like the CA to react humanely and treat individuals empathetically instead of trying to defend the organization,” he said.

“It was a shocking revelation. I wish there hadn’t been anything like that, but realism says other aspects of life have seen the same thing.”

A spokesman for the Australian Federal Police said they did not comment on “specific investigations”.