International Cricket Council chief executive Haroon Lorgat has hit back at Steve Waugh’s claim that 56 cricketers reported illegal approaches by bookmakers to the sport’s governing body last year.
Former Australia captain Waugh recently claimed that the number of illegal contacts reported had risen dramatically over the last two years.
The 46-year-old said only five reports had been made by players in 2009, while 56 were logged in 2010.
But Lorgat believes the increase does not reflect greater corruption. Instead he insists Waugh’s figures cannot be proved and even if they are correct, it would only show that players are now more aware of their responsibility to report those illegal approaches.
Lorgat told Radio Five Live’s Sportsweek programme: “I’m not sure where Steve Waugh gets that figure from because we do not publish any such information.
“In fact there’s one individual in the anti-corruption and security unit that maintains such records and he does not even know the figure himself, simply because he had not compiled it. So I’m not sure where Steve Waugh gets that figure from.
“What I can say is that we have substantially more players coming forward and reporting approaches made to them and I think that’s a result of the education process, the awareness that we’ve created amongst all of the international players and that’s a good thing.
“Who’s to say there were not as many in years gone by that were not reported?
“The fact is players are far more conscious today. The vast majority certainly play the game in the right spirit and they have the integrity to play the game properly and they are coming forward and reporting such approaches so that’s a good thing.”
Waugh, a member of the MCC’s world cricket committee, has controversially called for players to take lie-detector tests in a bid to root out corruption from cricket and wants to discuss his proposal with the ICC’s anti-corruption and security unit (ACSU).
He was spurred into action following last year’s revelations by Britain’s now defunct News of the World tabloid that former Pakistan captain Salman Butt, and bowlers Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif, were all involved in the deliberate bowling of no-balls during a Test against England at Lord’s as part of a betting scam.
The Pakistan trio were suspended for a minimum of five years’ each by the International Cricket Council (ICC), the sport’s global governing body, and are now awaiting a criminal trial in England due to start in October.
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