Melbourne: The Pakistan cricket team, which is in the midst of a match-fixing, spot-fixing scandal, may just have received a boost from Australian cricket authorities.
It has unveiled an argument against staging match-fixing coups such as the one by the UK media which allegedly trapped a number of Pakistan players in match-fixing and spot-fixing deals worth tens of thousands of pounds - fingers have been raised against Pakistan captain Salman Butt, and pacers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir.
If the argument wins, the ICC may not pursue a very aggressive policy to catch the corrupt.
The ICC's plan of using undercover agents posing as illegal bookmakers to "entrap" players has not gone down too well with the Australian Cricketers' Association, which says the idea is neither"reasonable" nor "lawful".
ACA chief executive Paul Marsh said the ICC has not discussed the plan with the Federation of International Cricketers' Associations.
"At this stage it's unclear to the ACA and FICA whether the proposal is designed to focus on catching and punishing players for not reporting approaches by illegal bookmakers or catching those directly involved in match-fixing, " Marsh said.
"As such we are in the process of seeking clarity from the ICC as to their intentions. If the proposal is focused on the former, then we believe the ICC needs to improve its current reporting and confidentiality processes before players should be entrapped and sanctioned for not reporting approaches, " he was quoted as saying.
The ACA boss said there are "significant concerns" about the players' security and the ICC needs to address them before going ahead with any such plan.
"This has caused many of them to have concerns for their safety and wellbeing, as well as being a distraction to their cricket, " Marsh said.
"In this way, the lack of confidentiality and trust in the process is actually a disincentive to report an approach, " he added.
"We all share the common goal of keeping corruption out of the game. However in saying this we're not convinced at this stage that a plan to effectively entrap players is either reasonable or lawful. "
Marsh said a better option would be have Players' Associations educating the cricketers about the perils of match-fixing.
"This will provide greater education and specialist advice as well as help create a culture of accountability.
"The ACA stands alongside FICA in urging the ICC to consider these recommendations as a more urgent priority than appointing undercover agents acting as illegal bookmakers, " he said.
Under the plan, players who fail to report the approaches from the agents face penalties under the ICC's anti-corruption code.
"We are thinking of setting up our own approaches to players, to see if they report it, we will think out of the box, " ICC CEO Haroon Lorgat has stated.
