BAN them for life. That's the only way to deal with anyone proved to have been involved in match-fixing and tainting this great game of ours.

I was as shocked as anyone by the claims made in Sir Paul Condon's report on corruption in cricket and I remain adamant I've never come across or heard of corruption in English cricket.

But if anyone is proved to have been involved in match fixing they have got to be banned for life. One or two years wouldn't be enough.

It's a great game we play and if people start tainting it or messing around with it, they've got to go.

Cricket has always been renowned for its fairness. 'It's not cricket' is an expression stemming from that.

I don't think it's wrong to expect such high standards today, but I think the game has been tainted by what's happened around the world.

It's very, very sad and I just hope the authorities can clear it all up so we can get on with the game.

I would be amazed if there was any fixing going on on any sort of scale though, saying that, I was also amazed when the stories of South African skipper Hanse Cronje's corruption came out.

I had the greatest respect for him as a cricketer and as a bloke before the revelations. He seemed an ideal role model for young cricketers.

So I suppose from that point of view, you don't really know do you? But I'm pretty sceptical. I've been in county cricket long enough to believe that if such things were going on, I'd have heard something, if only whispers.

As for abroad, our spinner Robert Croft had an anonymous telephone call in Sharjah which he reported to the authorities and I do think Sharjah is one of the big problems. It seems a dodgy tournament.

I think everyone would agree there's probably too much one-day cricket around the world and a lot of tournaments are meaningless.

Players get to a stage where they don't really want to play and if someone offers them some money...

That seems to be what happened with South Africa at the end of one Indian tour when they had that meeting about being offered money.

They obviously didn't want to play that game, it was supposed to be a benefit game, and that's probably where it stems from, too much one-day cricket. From what's coming out, it's obvious there have been some dodgy goings on in the sub continent.

But it's so far removed from county cricket it's not something we can understand or identify with.

The other big factor is spread betting which has lent itself to corruption. But I'm adamant I've never heard anything in English cricket.