Former Australian Test captain has said that bracket fixing is the new threat to the sport of cricket along with spot-fixing and bookmakers were making a lot of money with sometimes undetected incidents.
According to news.com.au, Steve Waugh expressed in his new book that betting scandals damage the sport of cricket the most because they strike beliefs that the contest is true, genuine and vigorously contested.
With bracket fixing, a segment of a 50-over game or a twenty20 contest is manipulated and in a five-over period, for example, the corrupt players ensure a certain amount of runs are scored, and if a captain is involved, the whole process can be achieved discreetly and effectively, the report said.
The former player said that these issues were discussed when he met in a meeting of the Marylebone Cricket Club's World Cricket Committee in Perth in 2010 along with corruption.
Waugh said that he pushed for an introduction of lie-detector tests and that if a player had not done anything wrong, he would not be afraid.
Around the turn of the century, after some prominent players including Test captains were found guilty of corruption, a number of national cricket boards chose not to have certain leads fully investigated, for fear more star players might be implicated, the report added.
The danger now lurks with the advent of Twenty 20 leagues sprouting up all over the cricket world, featuring numerous examples of private ownership of franchises and an influential and powerful owner can hand pick a captain who will follow his instructions, whatever they may be, even if they are against the spirit and ethos of the game, the report further said.