London:
Former cricket captains around the world on Monday reacted with shock and anger at the 'spot-fixing' scandal involving Pakistani players and demanded life bans for the guilty to wipe out corruption from the sport.
Former captains from England, Australia and Pakistan condemned the situation after Pakistan captain Salman Butt, bowlers Mohammad Aamir and Mohammad Asif were questioned by the police over allegations of 'spot-fixing'.
Former England skipper Michael Vaughan raised doubts about the authenticity of next month's ODI series between England and Pakistan if the accused players are selected.
"England will not want to play against them and the public will be suspicious of anything out of the ordinary. The matches would have no credibility as it has been alleged that two of the one-day internationals have been rigged already," Vaughan wrote in '
The Daily Telegraph'.
"The game has to be cleaned up. This is the chance to change the game forever and stamp this kind of thing out. Finally, the game's administrators cannot run and hide.
"The only way the game will move forward is by hitting those involved with life bans if they are found guilty."
Angry at the Pakistani players, former England skipper Nasser Hussain said it is important to clear mess as soon as possible.
"I find it hard to believe that we're just talking about a few no-balls," he wrote in the
Daily Mail.
"I'm furious with Pakistan for going down this road again. My hope is that, if the allegations are true, the authorities are strong.
"The depressing fact is we're back to the sad, bad old days. The sooner they sort out this mess, the better for everyone," he said.
Another former English captain Mike Atherton felt the shifting of cricket's power base to the Indian sub-continent has fuelled illegal bookmaking.
"Given the shift of cricket's power to the east, given the way cricket is uniquely placed to offer betting opportunities, given that it is a game played by human beings and given that the governing body is weak, it is unlikely that an absolute end to corruption will come any time soon," he wrote in
'The Times'.
Another former skipper Ian Botham was worried about the future of cricket and said the integrity of the game was at stake after this latest scandal.
"We need to see a swift investigation and with the evidence we've seen it surely can't take too long to get things moving," he wrote in the 'Daily Telegraph'.
"Then we need to see some appropriate action, not just have things fumbled around in a back room months later.