Pakistan cricket scam puts ICC in the dock

ENGLAND captain Andrew Strauss has launched a scathing attack on the anti-corruption unit of the International Cricket Council today, labelling it a "toothless tiger".

The ICC has unsurprisingly come in for criticism after three Pakistan cricketers were found guilty of conspiring to bowl deliberate no-balls at pre-determined times in last year's Test match against England.

Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt was jailed for 30 months while Mohammed Asif and Mohammed Amir face one year and six months behind bars respectively.

However, the problem arises in that their crimes were uncovered in a sting operation by a British tabloid newspaper, rather than by the sporting body's anti-corruption unit.

ICC chief Sir Ronnie Flanagan has said there is little to be worried about and claimed that illegal betting is "engaged in by a tiny number of people".

But Strauss has questioned whether the ICC has enough resources to be sure that corruption is indeed "not rampant in the world of cricket", as Sir Ronnie also suggested.

"They can't do sting operations like the News of the World. They can't infiltrate these betting networks. I'm hopeful only a minor percentage of cricketers are involved in it but the truth is we really don't know," Strauss said.

Strauss is not the only person to speak out about the ICC. One of his predecessors, Sir Ian Botham, has also criticised the governing body over their handling of the case.

Sir Ian said: "I think the ICC have just sat on their hands and pretended it's not there. Well now they have got to act."

In response, Sir Ronnie has insisted that the members of anti-corruption unit is "doing the best job they possibly can".

But that is not the issue here. The issue is that the ICC simply have not put enough money or man-power into their own investigations.

And, while the unit probably is doing the best it can, the truth is that it currently falls woefully short of being an adequate regulator.

The worst part of it is that Sir Ronnie and his team seem so relaxed that their job was effectively done by News of the World journalists, rather than themselves.

The newspaper may now have deservedly bitten the dust but it goes to show that, amid the calls for vigilante justice and the illegal phone-hacking, occasionally it served its readers well.

One thing which is for sure is that the papers in Pakistan are glad of the verdict even though a minority of fans has screamed that the case was a Western conspiracy against their team.

In fairness, the majority of Pakistan supporters is pleased to be following an improving team which is working hard to cast off its negative image by actually winning some cricket matches.

But a significant match-fixing underworld still exists, and the temptation to make a fast buck remains present, especially in the sub-continent.

Surely the ICC, which is not a poor organisation by any stretch, needs to put more money and man-power into ripping apart these shady practices once and for all.

For, cricket supporters all around the world deserve far better assurances that what they are watching is a genuine reflection of the teams' abilities - and not based upon the vagaries of the bookmakers' odds.