It's a shame, says Small

Former England Test cricketer, Barbadian Gladstone Small, said yesterday it was a great shame the gentleman's game of cricket had been 'besmirched' by match-fixing allegations.

His comments came hours after an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in India into match-fixing mentioned a number of prominent names in international cricket.

'It is a great shame. The game is too great a game to be besmirched by that sort of activity,' Small, who is back home on vacation with his wife Lois, sons Zachary and Marcus and daughter Zoe, told NATION SPORT.

He, like many Test players, has blamed the large number of One Day cricket matches that are now being played for the breakdown in the game, although he stressed that there was a place for cricket's shorter, more exciting version.

'What has happened is that there has been so many One-Day cricket matches being played that some of them have probably become meaningless.

'There are so many of them, you get one or two of the leading cricketers such as Wasim Akram, a few of the Australians and a couple of the Indians ... these guys have played well over 300 One-Day Internationals.'

Saying where there is smoke there is fire, the former England fast bowler, who is now an administrator with the Professional Players Association, added that with so many allegations going around sooner or later 'something is going to stick some where'.

However, Small, who played in a match yesterday for the Combermere Old Scholars against the school team, said that match-fixing was something that was incomprehensible to him.

'I can honestly say that in all the years I played with the teams I played with, at county level, England level, there is no one incident that I can recall; I didn't hear a whisper or get a gist that something was going on,' said Small, who played 17 Test matches and took 55 wickets for England.

The CBI investigation began in May, a month after the sacking of South African captain Cronje after he admitted taking money from an Indian bookmaker.