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Corruption rife in cricket: Lord MacLaurin

England's top cricket official expressed fears on Tuesday that corruption in the scandal-hit sport could be widespread.

Lord MacLaurin, the chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, made his claims as the International Cricket Council met at Lord's for a two-day emergency meeting.

The ICC hope that decisive steps can be taken this week towards cleaning up the sport in the wake of the Hansie Cronje scandal and other allegations of match-fixing.

Delegates began arriving early to the ECB offices, but few were prepared to stop and talk to the assembled media.

ICC president Jagmohan Dalmiya was one of the first to arrive, but would only say "we're hopeful" when questioned about the meeting while Dennis Rogers, chairman of the Australian Cricket Board, refused to comment.

But most of the interest centred on Ali Bacher, managing director of the United Cricket Board of South Africa and chairman of the ICC's Development Committee.

Bacher has promised to unmask the teams and the umpire he claims were involved in match-fixing during last year's World Cup and said: "We want to eradicate once and for all the cancer from the game - I'm sure there'll be positives from this meeting."

Lord MacLaurin meanwhile, when asked on BBC radio if he thought corruption was rife in cricket, replied: "I have a nasty feeling that it might be.

"If it is, and we are ferreting it all out now, so be it. This game of cricket is a very great game and it cannot be tainted by people destroying it in the ways that have been alleged in recent times."

The ICC are still awaiting the findings of Justice Malik Mohammad Qayyam's report into match-fixing in Pakistan.

But MacLaurin believes the problem is not solely restricted to the sub-continent.

He continued: "I hope we have the Pakistan report today. We have had inquiries here and in South Africa, and we have had problems in Australia so you could say it is worldwide.

"I really don't think anyone knows - but we have to make sure we put all the rules and regulations in to clear it out of the game."

MacLaurin believes the ICC have to deal with the problem quickly and effectively.

He said: "We, as the senior people in cricket worldwide, have to establish our own credibility to be able to deal with this matter.

"We'll be asking everyone round the table to make a full declaration that their past is absolutely clean and clear.

"You can't have a board of directors pontificating about the future of the game if any one of them have any skeletons in the closet.

"They have to be crystal clear in their past dealings otherwise the thing becomes a farce."

He added: "The ICC have got to grab this one. They have got to show leadership of the game, they have got to show their teeth. If they don't the great game of cricket will be seen to be leaderless."

In a separate move the International Cricketers' Association called on Tuesday for a "thorough investigation" into the sport.

The Federation of International Cricketers' Association (FICA) have written to ICC chief executive David Richards expressing their views and asked for them to be presented at the two-day summit.

FICA believe no-one should be exempt from the inquiry, with chief executive David Graveney stressing: "In light of continuing adverse publicity relating to the international game, it's crucial that the most thorough investigation is undertaken to include every level of the professional game.

"It should reflect both the players participating in games, but also those individuals involved in the staging of international matches.

"It's critical to the future well-being of the game that corruption is identified and removed as soon as possible. To this end, it's important that cricket boards make available any information at the earliest opportunity to the investigating body."

But Graveney is critical that the chief executives of the nine Test-playing nations are absent from the meeting and believes the decision to restrict the summit to the 18 ICC delegates, who are usually the figureheads of each governing body, is a mistake.

"The forthcoming meeting of the ICC is the most important in its history with many critical issues to be discussed and decided, thus it is disappointing that the chief executives of the nine Test-playing nations will not be attending," he said.

"Though it would have been preferable to FICA to express its views in person, we have communicated in writing with David Richards and trust our views will be presented to the meeting."

Tim May, chief executive of the Australian Cricketers' Association, added: "The position of FICA is clear - under no circumstances will we tolerate corruption or impropriety at any level of the game.

"We actively strive to seek out and extinguish any such activities that we deem to be putting in doubt the credibility and good name of the game of cricket."