Taylor fears player exclusion

Taylor wants to keep fans involved in the game

Former Australian cricket captain Mark Taylor fears international players will be closeted away from fans because of the match-fixing scandal.

One of the recommendations that came out of Sir Paul Condon's interim report into match-fixing was that access to players by outsiders needed to be regulated.

The report, compiled by the International Cricket Council's anti-corruption unit, advised security measure to deny bookmakers access to players and restricted use of mobile phones.

But Taylor said he feared players would be removed from the public and be confined to their hotel rooms while on tour.

"Cricket has always been a game for the public," Taylor told Australian television.

Taylor was a favourite with the public

"I don't want to see players locked up in hotel rooms, ushered straight onto buses or in limousines, taken away from the venue (and have) no mixing with the public.

"And dare I say it - they become a bit more like tennis players.

"You are never going to stop a bookmaker from approaching a player, whether it be in a practice session, in a team hotel or travel between events.

"What you can do though is try and put something in place where the players feel they are not threatened by it, they are prepared to talk to someone about it and do something about it."

Meanwhile, former West Indian wicket-keeper Jeff Dujon said he had suspected match-rigging had taken place in Sharjah.

"I always suspected it went a lot deeper than was thought.

Cricket is a game with so many different aspects that it is tailor-made for gambling

Jeff Dujon

"I know a lot of gambling goes on in Sharjah so it doesn't really surprise me that it is as widespread as this."

"I cannot speak for other players, and I was never approached myself, but I have heard things on the sub-continent."

The evolution of spread-betting has opened the game up to corruption.

Punters can now place bets on any facet of the game, not just on the result - for example, they can get odds on which end a certain bowler will bowl from or how many runs he will give away.

"Cricket is a game with so many different aspects that it is tailor-made for gambling," said Dujon.

"Where there's gambling there is the possibility of match-fixing."