17 Nov 2011

Leading Test nations allegedly all involved in match-fixing

11:51 am on 17 November 2011

All of cricket's leading countries were involved in the fixing of major matches, not just Pakistan, says the sport's former chief anti-corruption investigator.

Paul Condon, the founding head of the International Cricket Council's anti corruption unit, has told the London Evening Standard that in the late 1990s Test and World Cup matches were being routinely fixed.

He says every international team, at some stage, had a player doing some funny stuff.

This month a British court jailed three Pakistan cricketers for deliberately bowling no-balls in a Test against England at Lord's last year in order to effect an illegal betting coup.

Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt was sentenced to 30 months in prison while bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer were jailed for a year and six months respectively.

But Condon, a former head of London's Metropolitan Police Force who helped set up the ICC's anti-corruption unit in 2000, says a whole generation of cricketers playing in the late 1990s must have known what was going on and did nothing.