ECB Chairman Calls for ‘total vigilance’ on Corruption

January 16, 2012

Giles Clarke, chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board has suggested total vigilance is needed in the sport as cricket attempts to rid itself of continuing corruption.

Clarke is under the impression players should make use of the system now in place to alert the game’s authorities to any attempts to fix any part of the game.

In the aftermath of jailing of three Pakistan Test players and after former Essex player Mervyn Westfield this week admitted accepting £6,000 to spot-fix a match between his county and Durham, Clarke believes efforts should be renewed.

Westfield is to be sentenced on February 10 and the ECB has opened what it calls a reporting window to allow players and officials to give information on past approaches without fear of punishment.

“For all of us in cricket we are now having to come to terms with anything being feasible. The need for being vigilant is total,” said Clarke on BBC Radio Five.

Clarke was adamant corruption should not be allowed in the sport.

He added: “It can’t be allowed to exist in our game. It is so important that this system of informing and saying what is going on, when it is not allowed and it is illegal, actually exists.”

Clarke admitted there might have been a perception that corruption did not exist in the County Championship game.

“I think that many players simply might not have thought seriously about something because they wouldn’t have regarded it as real.”

Clarke added that the ECB would not take any action against Westfield until after he had been sentenced by the judge sitting in his case at the Old Bailey.