Cricket Australia Shocked by allegations

Cricket Australia (CA) Chief Executive James Sutherland said he was shocked to hear reports of alleged Test cricket match fixing in London and Sydney.

Sutherland explained "the reports from the UK are most disturbing and we look forward to the outcome of rigourous investigation by the UK authorities as well as by the ICC.

"It is critical for cricket that the public has confidence in the integrity of the outcome of games, which is why CA and other ICC members have supported the significant world cricket investment in anti corruption over the last decade or more.

"We have no knowledge of the current allegations but by their very nature, they demonstrate the absolute importance of world cricket maintaining its vigilance in relation the anti-corruption.

"As Lord Condon, the founder of the ICC anti corruption process has always said, that vigilance can never be relaxed."

The latest accusations have again focused attention on Australia's remarkable Test match win over Pakistan in Sydney in January, where the home side clawed their way to victory after being on the brink of defeat.

However, CA is keen to stress that Australia won that game on the merit of their on field performance and will now wait on evidence from UK and ICC investigations before making any further comment.

Meanwhile former International Cricket Council Chief Executive Malcolm Speed believes there is a serious case for Pakistan to be banned from world cricket after further fixing allegations were levelled at several members of the team.

Speed told ABC Radio "I think that's (suspension) an option.

"It looks as though it is endemic that several of the team members are involved and have been for some time. So perhaps they need a rest. It looks a fairly compelling case. The News of the World do this sort of thing very well and it's very graphic."

English-newspaper The News of the World secretly-filmed player agent Mazhar Majeed offering spot-fixing for the recently-completed England-Pakistan Test series, including when no balls would be bowled during the match by Pakistani player Mohammed Amir and Mohammed Asif.

Majeed also spoke of match-fixing, suggesting that the result of the Australia-Pakistan Test match at the SCG had been pre-arranged, yielding a windfall for Pakistani players.

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9th October 2009 - AUSTRALIA A TARGET FOR MATCH-FIXING