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MacLaurin repeats demand for life bans for match-fixers
CricInfo - 20 May 2001

The chairman of the ECB has repeated his call for life bans for cricketers found guilty of match-fixing.

Lord MacLaurin's comments come just days before Sir Paul Condon's findings into corruption are made public.

MacLaurin said: "I think everyone knows my view and you have to have life bans - it's no good mucking about with this," he told BBC radio.

"Three months, six months, a year is no good if people transgress and they besmirch the great game, they are out of it.

"I have made my position absolutely clear. I don't think there is any room for people in the game who transgress rules and regulations.

"If it is an England player, and I only have jurisdiction over English players, then they know very well what would happen to them in the English game."

The corruption issue will be brought into the public eye tonight on BBC television when Panorama focuses on the issue.

The programme will look at allegations of match-fixing at various tournaments held at Sharjah. In the documentary, Inspector KK Paul, a prominent figure in the Indian police's investigation of cricket corruption, is asked whether he believes matches in Sharjah had been rigged.

He says: "Definitely. There does appear to be very strong suspicion that some results have been manipulated.

"Also it is widely known that certain mafia gangs based in the Gulf countries have been heavily betting on cricket and manipulating the results."

Former England captain Adam Hollioake tells the programme about the methods used by the fixers. "Basically I arrived in my hotel room to be greeted after four or five minutes by a phone call from an anonymous caller," says Hollioake.

"He was asking for information about my batting line-up, who I was going to bowl first and what I was going to do if I won the toss.

"Five minutes later I received another phone call. This time it was someone different, saying I had spoken to his colleague a few minutes earlier.

"He said that if I wanted to become very wealthy I should basically speak to him and arrange to meet with him.

"I hadn't played my first game as England captain. It was disturbing to say the least."

Hollioake refused the offer and another former England skipper, Ian Botham, believes the current situation is just the tip of the iceberg.

"I think it goes a lot deeper," he said. "It is not just the players who are involved, it's a much wider network.

"I've heard of figures of as much as a billion dollars changing hands in a Test Match, one Test Match result. So to offer someone 50,000 dollars is small fry."

© CricInfo Ltd.


Players/Umpires Adam Hollioake, Ian Botham.