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'Players must report matters of match-fixing to authorities'
With match-fixing rearing its ugly head once again, England Test captain Andrew Strauss has asked his team-mates to be more vigilant and report the matter to the authorities if they come across such a situation.
"We have a duty, if we hear of (match fixing) in domestic cricket or with England, to come forward and report it straight away. For players to be tempted to take bookmakers' money is ludicrous," Strauss said.
Reports of match-fixing emerged on Wednesday with a leading British daily claiming that an Indian businessman had approached a county player with more than 10 years of experience in English cricket to quote "his own price".
Talking to reporters on the eve of his side's first Test against England at Lord's, Bangladesh skipper Shakib-al-Hasan also said he got a call on the eve of Bangladesh's ODI series against Ireland in 2008, promising him sponsorship in return for under-performance.'Match-fixing needs to be stamped out straight away'
Strauss said he himself has never come across any match-fixing incident but stressed on the need to eradicate the menace straight away.
"From my experience, I haven't seen anything in the Middlesex dressing room or had any reason to suspect that a game I have played in has been fixed in any way. If it is happening, it needs to be stamped out straight away," Strauss said at Lord's.
Strauss, on his return to Test cricket, said he was excited to be back among the group again and hoping to fire with the bat.
"There is a real vibrancy in the team. It is important that I give good, strong leadership. As for my batting, hopefully I can hit the ground running.
"Nothing has changed. The downside was a short-term change of leadership. Hopefully the upside will outweigh it this summer, in Australia and beyond. It is not all about backslapping. It is about making improvements in Test cricket. We don't make enough big hundreds, some of our bowling needs to improve in unfavourable conditions and we want our fielding to be the best in the world," he said.