Pakistan must be suspended as cricket faces fresh 'fixing' claim

No ifs, no buts, no arguments.

No other action is appropriate following the allegations of spot-fixing involving several of their players.

Although technically innocent until proven guilty, former England captain Michael Vaughan put it well yesterday when he said: "I don't see how they (Pakistan) can get out of this one."

No one who has watched the video footage of the apparent betting scam involving several Pakistan players can fail to concur with Vaughan's assessment.

The footage – secretly filmed by undercover News Of The World reporters posing as Far East businessmen (will the world's hoodlums never learn?) – appears to show Mazhar Majeed, agent to several Pakistan players, receiving 150,000 in return for guaranteeing the deliberate bowling of no-balls during the final Test against England at Lord's.

Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif, the Pakistan opening pair, sent down no-balls at precisely the times Majeed appeared to indicate to tabloid reporters.

And not just no-balls, mark you, but balls delivered from so far over the front line that the bowlers were practically close enough to smell the batsman's after-shave.

The News Of The World claim seven Pakistan players are implicated in the scandal, although only four have so far been mentioned – the others being Kamran Akmal, the wicketkeeper, and, most disturbing of all, Salman Butt, the captain, who has drawn praise for his conduct on and off the field this summer.

Majeed has been arrested by Scotland Yard on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud bookmakers, while the mobile telephones of Butt, Amir and Asif have been seized as police investigations continue.

In the wake of the latest controversy to damage cricket, it has been suggested that any player found guilty of match-fixing or spot-fixing (the wilful rigging of specific factors within a game) should be banned for life.

I whole-heartedly agree.

The Pakistan players, it must be stressed, are more vulnerable than most to the influence of betting scams, with illegal gambling rife on the subcontinent, and it is not unknown for cricketers and their families to be physically intimidated if they do not comply with the wishes of criminals.

But the good of the game is paramount – even if someone like Amir, an 18-year-old of immense promise, is lost for good to a sport he could comfortably grace for the next 15 years.

Life bans, however, are still not sufficient.

Any team implicated in cheating should also be banned from international cricket for a definite period.

That way, the International Cricket Council would send the strongest possible message that cheating in any form will not be tolerated.

In this case, the evidence against Pakistan appears so overwhelming they should be removed from international competition pending the conclusion of police inquiries.

If that leads to the cancellation of the forthcoming Twenty20 and one-day series against England, including the Headingley ODI on September 12, it is a price worth paying.

The integrity of the game is far too important to be compromised by matches proceeding under a cloud of suspicion.

Although the likes of Yorkshire would have to be compensated, the sport needs to show that money is not the be-all and end-all – as it sadly seems to be to those who seek to line their pockets.

Of course, there is nothing to say that the deliberate bowling of no-balls is not just the tip of the iceberg.

At times, Pakistan played so poorly during the Test series that one can only wonder at the credibility of other events.

It was only a few weeks ago that Pakistan performed magnificently to beat Australia in a Test match at Leeds.

But they gave another woeful exhibition at Lord's – losing 14 wickets during the final two sessions on Saturday as they were bowled out for 74 and then 147 to lose by an innings and 225 runs.

Alas, the controversy took much of the gloss off England's performance.

It detracted from the magnificent batting of Stuart Broad, who rewrote the record books at Lord's with a brilliant 169 and added 332 for the eighth-wicket with Jonathan Trott, a world Test record.

It detracted from the bowling of Graeme Swann, who sealed victory yesterday with another five-wicket haul, and overshadowed a triumph that sends England into this winter's Ashes series in reasonably good shape, if still with one or two problems in the batting department.

And that, in a nutshell, is the tragedy of this crisis.

For it is not just the cheats who lose out, it is those who are cheated against.

It is the good guys, the innocents, those who play by the rules who will forever wonder whether their runs and wickets were legitimately obtained.

This episode shows cricket has not yet eradicated the spectre of cheating.

And for that it only has itself to blame.

The game's authorities simply did not clamp down hard enough when match-fixing first came into the spotlight a decade earlier, when such as Hansie Cronje worshipped at the altar of greed.

While the ICC were content to allow India and Pakistan to impose bans on their players, the cricketers from other countries were more or less allowed to get off scot-free.

There was not enough decisive action to tackle the problem.

Of course, there is nothing the ICC can do to prevent cheating per se.

They cannot change a society, a sporting culture in which money comes first, second and third.

But they can lay down a clear statement that cricket will clamp down heavily on anyone whose actions serve to destroy it.

And if that means booting players and countries out of international competition, then so be it.