Strauss urges ICC to 'do their job'
Andrew Strauss has called on the ICC to "do their job" and rid the game of corruption after the latest spot-fixing allegations emerged during England's one-day series against Pakistan
Andrew McGlashan at Lord's
19-Sep-2010

Andrew Strauss faces the media at Lord's ahead of the fourth ODI • PA Photos
Andrew Strauss has called on the ICC to "do their job" and rid the
game of corruption after the latest spot-fixing allegations emerged
during England's one-day series against Pakistan. The ICC announced on
Saturday that they were launching an investigation into scoring-rates
during the third one-day international at The Oval, which has sparked
an angry response from the Pakistan board and left the remaining two
matches under another cloud.
When the ECB called an emergency board meeting to discuss the
Sun newspaper story which sparked the ICC into action it
appeared the remaining one-dayers could be in doubt, but the ECB
received assurances that no England players were involved and said the
matches would continue. However, in the latest bizarre twist Ijaz
Butt, the PCB chairman, has launched a scathing attack on a
"conspiracy" against Pakistan and claimed that it's England that
should be investigated.
That development only came to light after Strauss spoke about his
ongoing sadness at further controversy overshadowing the cricket and
made a demand to the ICC to take strong action. "If it's not dealt
with strictly now it never will be," he said. "It's brought everything
very firmly to everyone's attention that it's an issue.
"Clearly we still have to find out if there's actual guilt or not but
ICC have got a responsibility to the game of cricket make sure when 22
players turn up for a match they are trying hard to win. The ICC need
to stand up and lead the game. Never has it been more important for
them to do that."
However, Strauss warned that cricket will have to face some painful
truths to get to the bottom of corruption but warned that if drastic
steps aren't taken now then the issue will only return in the future
with greater vengeance.
"There is no doubt that we need to get into a situation where every
team in international cricket we are sure is 100% clean," Strauss
said. "How we go about that is the sixty million dollar question. It's
going to be hard to root out people if they are doing it and it's
going to be a long-winded and painful affair if people are going to
take it seriously.
"The last thing I want is things to be swept under the carpet because
we'll have to deal with it again in the future and it will be worse.
Each time these things come out it chips away at the game of cricket."
Ever since the first spot-fixing scandal erupted during the Lord's
Test last month the onfield action has taken a back seat. The public
showed their growing apathy with poor crowds at the two Twenty20
internationals in Cardiff and although the first three one-dayers have
been well attended it remains to be seen the impact of the latest
revelations on the last two games, while Strauss admitted the end
can't come soon enough.
"All the players will be quite relieved when this series is over and
done with - there's no doubt about that," he said. "It's been a very
tough tour for the Pakistanis and a tough series for us to play in,
given what has gone on off the pitch."
Strauss spoke with Hugh Morris, the managing director of England
cricket, and representatives at the Professional Cricketers'
Association after Saturday's story about the third one-dayer before it
was confirmed the series would continue. He wants to give the benefit
of the doubt before jumping to any conclusions.
"I just don't see how we can do anything different, because we have no
idea as to whether these allegations are at all credible or not," he
said. "It would be wrong for us to vote with our feet on something
that may be just a crank call. We just don't know.
"The only thing you can say is give the benefit of the doubt that
these allegations are well off the mark. That is certainly my attitude
at the moment - because I would be dumbfounded if it was taking place
after everything that has gone on in the Test series."
Andrew McGlashan is an assistant editor at Cricinfo