MacLaurin appalled by plans for phone tapping and lie detector tests

Lord MacLaurin says he will resist to the "nth degree" any attempt to implement lie-detector tests and phone tapping of cricketers in England.

The England and Wales Cricket Board chairman was reacting after the King Commission in South Africa, which investigated allegations of match fixing against disgraced former captain Hansie Cronje, suggested it would resort to such draconian measures to try to weed out remaining offenders.

"It is unfortunately necessary for players' telephone calls and also e-mails to be monitored," said the commission's second interim report.

"A somewhat drastic proposal is that players should contractually authorise the undergoing of a polygraph test which would be undertaken either at random or when there are grounds for suspicion present."

But MacLaurin said of the proposals: "My first reaction is one of great sadness. I would be very, very loath to enter into anything like that at all.

"We do have a problem in the game. I think people are working very hard to eradicate it but I would like to think there was a certain trust between the administrators and the players. I'm appalled really that we're descending into something like that.

"We all mean business. But I think there are degrees of how far you have to go; if it's that bad then I think the game is probably rotten right the way through and you can't trust anybody."

He added: "Cricket for me is not like that. Cricket is a game that you trust people implicitly; it's a great game of great honour and great integrity, and I think that there are a few people who have transgressed.

"But in the whole scheme of things I do think there is trust and honour in the game of cricket and I would not go for lie detectors and anything like that; that would be very sad.

"A few people [have been caught] - get them out of the game completely, ban them for life. I've taken a very strong view about that."

MacLaurin also criticised any proposal to introduce such a scheme in England. "I think I would resist that to the nth degree," he said. "I think I've got great trust in the people I work with and I have huge trust in the players."