Fixing now 'suppressed'

Lord Condon insists his team have made headway

Cricket's ugliest episode is now under control, according to Lord Condon, the International Cricket Council's (ICC) leading investigator of match-fixing.

He said major headway had been achieved in the fight to beat the fixers, although he was also keen not to rest on his laurels.

Condon said from South Africa: "I'm confident we have suppressed the problem. The challenge now is for us to eradicate it."

In June, Condon's eagerly-awaited report on match-fixing produced a list of 24 recommendations to clean up the game.

Preventing temptation

It included a suggestion that international players should be payed extra to reduce the risk of temptation by bookmakers.

Condon also proposed appointing full-time security managers to prevent players being approached, installing professional umpires and introducing an education program.

At the time, the former Scotland Yard chief said the infrastructure still existed to fix matches and huge sums were still bet on games.

Condon has now arrived in South Africa to advise local cricket authorities on measures to ensure the 2003 Cricket World Cup is corruption-free.

In June, former Pakistan Board chief executive Majid Khan alleged some of the 1999 World Cup matches had been fixed.