The guilty verdicts handed out to Pakistani cricketers Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif in the spot-fixing case should act as wake call for the ICC to be more pro-active in uncovering corruption prevalent within the game, feels former England captain Nasser Hussain.
Even though ICC has hailed the verdicts, terming it as warning for players who might be tempted to engage in corrupt practices, Hussain was of the view that if needed, the world body should go out of its way to dig out corruption from the game.
"The crucial thing is that the game now deals as thoroughly as it can with this scourge. This cancer will resurface if it isn't dealt with properly.
"I would give some credit to the ICC on this. Yes, it is a wake-up call for them that the spot-fixing was exposed by a newspaper. I just hope now that the (ICC's) anti-corruption unit is a little more pro-active," Hussain wrote in his Daily Mail column.
Butt and Asif were found guilty of conspiracy to cheat and conspiracy to accept corrupt payments by a criminal court in London, on Tuesday, for fixing part of a Test match at Lord's last year.
The third accused, 19-year-old pacer Mohammad Aamer, who was also involved in the conspiracy, did not face trial as he had pleaded guilty.
"Rather than just waiting for a rumour to surface, I'd like to see them try to uncover problems themselves -- even if that means setting up a sting operation. It will take time, but we can't rest until we're all able to watch a game of cricket without raising our eyebrows every time someone oversteps or drops a sitter," Hussain said.
