ACB chief calls for life ban

MELBOURNE, APRIL 27: The Australian cricket board chairman Dennis Rogers on Thursday day called for players found guilty of match-fixing t...

MELBOURNE, APRIL 27: The Australian cricket board chairman Dennis Rogers on Thursday day called for players found guilty of match-fixing to be banned for life.

Rogers will attend an emergency two-day meeting of the International Cricket Council executive at Lord’s next week to formulate tactics to battle the bribery scandal that was exposed when former South Africa captain Hansie Cronje was charged with taking money from Indian bookmakers.

“My own view, and it’s a personal view I will take to London with me, is that if match-fixing has been proven and if a player is proven beyond doubt to be guilty of match-fixing, then it’s only sensible that the cricket public and administrators should respond and say it’s life, you don’t play again for life,” Rogers said.

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“There’s no second chances on this. If there is anyone who is responsible who is a player, then they have no right to play,” he said.

Rogers, an ICC executive board member, said it was unrealistic to expect a cure for match-fixing to emerge after just two days.

“The game belongs to the people and we therefore owe it to the people to get to the bottom of it,” Rogers said.

He said that meant developing a status report and then moving forward to “rid ourselves of this wretched curse.”

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“I’m not sure we can get to the bottom of it,” Rogers said. “What we can do is put a process in place that tries to bring that about as a matter of urgency.”