A need for vigilance

Variety betting is extremely big business and no sport offers a greater range of options in that particular field than cricket, whether it be the number of runs scored in a session or how many chocolate cakes will be delivered to the BBC commentary box before lunch on the first day of the Lord’s Test match, writes Martin Johnson in the Sunday Times.

More disturbing for the sport, with a county cricketer recently reporting an approach from an Indian businessman worth a moral-compass tempting £5m, is that all the evidence points to large sums of money now being offered to players in the lower echelons of the game, players who are therefore more likely to be enticed. Limited-over games between English county sides are televised live in India, where vast sums of money are involved in betting on cricket. Hard though it is to conjure up the picture, a humdrum Pro40 match in front of a handful of cloth caps in Derby might have millions of dollars resting on the outcome in Delhi.

In the Sunday Telegraph, Steve James urges the authorities to be vigilant and says "itis vital now that these players remain anonymous, as must those who came forward last week. Whistle-blowing can be a dangerous and stressful business, especially where the murky Indian underworld is concerned."