ICC winning corruption war: Condon

Cricket match-fixing is probably still continuing but anti-corruption measures should help stamp it out over the next year, according to the head of the International Cricket Council's Anti-Corruption Unit.

"Sadly, I do think events or matches have been fixed in the last year," Paul Condon told a press conference on Monday. "But I am confident we will quickly have the infrastructure to stop it in the next year."

Condon stressed he believes only "a very small number" of recent games had been rigged, adding he is sure the series between England and Pakistan, which ended 1-1, had not been affected.

"It was embarrassingly easy in the past to fix matches or aspects of matches for betting purposes. I think most of that has stopped," he said.

It was "almost routine" for players, groundsmen and umpires to be approached by bookmakers but now only a small number of people are still "dabbling" in trying to rig results, either because they are "frightened to stop, not allowed to stop, arrogant or greedy".

Condon was speaking at Lord's after the ICC fully endorsed the Anti-Corruption Unit's report into matchfixing.

The report included a raft of measures including educating players about the dangers of approaches from bookmakers and giving them more security.

The unit's investigation was launched after a worldwide scandal last year was sparked by former South African captain Hansie Cronje being accused of taking money from bookmakers.

Cronje, former Pakistan captain Salim Malik and former India captain Mohammad Azharuddin have subsequently been banned for life after judicial and criminal inquiries.

Mail Cricket Editor