Cricket match-fixing could spread 'like a rash'

Lord David Condon, the outgoing head of the International Cricket Council's anti-corruption unit, has warned that match-fixing would spread "like a rash" throughout the sport if there was complacency.

The former London Metropolitan Police Commissioner, who was recruited to lead the unit in the wake of the Hanse Cronje match-fixing affair a decade ago, said he believes that, while wholesale fixing of matches had been stamped out, so-called "spot fixing" (which exploits bets placed on short passages of play rather than match results) remained a serious threat.

Condon stated "compared to many other international sports, cricket is in good shape ⦠but if it gets complacent, fixing will be all over it like a rash within a year, two years. They need to keep the pressure on. Complacency will be a real risk."

Condon, who will hand over to the former Northern Ireland Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan at the beginning of July, said that despite a flurry of allegations the International Cricket Council (ICC) had not received any complaints about match-fixing at the third edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

The ICC did not oversee the first two tournaments but had oversight of the third, which erupted into controversy as the IPL's Commissioner, Lalit Modi, was suspended amid allegations of money-laundering and match-fixing. Condon said there had been no concrete evidence to investigate.

Condon added "I can't give it a clean bill of health because I just don't know.

"We were worried (about the first two IPLs), not because we thought there were fixes but because there was no real infrastructure to prevent them. If players do anything daft there, sadly they will take that back into the international game because you cannot be a part-time fixer once the bad guys are into you. A lot are organised criminals and you're on the hook."

Condon said the ICC would examine newly leaked video evidence showing Pakistan's management raising suspicions about match-fixing during their side's disastrous tour of Australia earlier this year, on which they lost every game.

Condon said the "dysfunctional" tour was the subject of an ongoing inquiry, adding âwhat we are trying to establish is whether that was because rival camps wanted to do down captains or potential captains or whether they were doing something more serious, for a financial fix.

"At the moment it is a flurry of allegations rather than hard fact. The investigations at the time suggested it was more about a dysfunctional team."

6th May 2010 - AFL FIGURES BANNED IN BETTING CRACKDOWN

22nd April 2010 - PRESSURE ON MODI AS INDIAN GOVERNMENT PROBES IPL