It was a very peculiar situation for players during the first test match between India and the West Indies at the Wankhede Stadium of Mumbai. In the first day of the match, both teams found a poster, issued by the Anti Corruption Unit (ACU) of ICC, taped on the wall of their dressing as well as media rooms asking them to beware of match fixers. Of course, that was not a simple message that the International Cricket Council (ICC) wanted to convey to the players but a clear warning as a few players feel, that "big brother" is watching them.

After two years of the Hansie Cronje affair, the former captain of South Africa who died in a plane crash recently, when he revealed publicly that he betrayed the nation for dollars, the ghost of match fixing is still following players the world over. As a number of Indian players were named in match fixing scandals, life is not easy for the current team since then. Cricket is not a game in India but a product and the flow of cash in the way of endorsements or prize money in this game is unimaginable. Indian players are very much under the sharp scanner of the ACU. The security manager of the team is listing visitors to the players’ rooms and their phone calls are passing through a third ear. Neither the players, most of them, nor the team management is happy the way ACU is keeping an eye on them, but they have half-heartedly given the nod at the cost of their privacy to remove corruption from cricket.

"Players have welcomed the initiative taken by ACU so far. And, their co-operation with ICC is very incorrigible. Fact is, their privacy has never been disturbed. ACU installed the cameras outside the dressing rooms and the hotel but not inside the dressing rooms. Keeping records of telephone calls made by the occupants is a general practice in hotel business," explains N. S. Virk, ‘a human closed circuit’ appointed by the ACU for the Indian and Sri Lankan cricket teams.

How does a one man army keep away the well-organised mafia syndicate from the cash crop game called cricket? Virk, a DSP rank CBI officer, now travelling with the team says: "Yes, one cannot stop match fixing. If someone is involved in this business, he need not appear on the ground physically. We totally depend on information we are getting from all kinds of sources. On their base, we work. We are here to ask (players) to beware of new friends, groupies, and commercial offers that seem too good. If we find any suspicious part played by any particular player or anyone related to him, the ACU has enough power to proceed against such shady deals." Singh, who handled the match fixing case in 2000, elaborates his presence with the Indian team as an intelligence officer of the ICC.

ICC has taken a number of steps to check corrupt practices but, as Singh accepts, has so far failed in its mission because even Lord Condon, Director, ACU, feels that corruption is not necessarily the same as ‘match fixing.’ It is believed that in the average one day international played anywhere in the world, there are at least 150 million dollars bet on the unlawful market.

The literature distributed to the players, their administration, and the public under an education and awareness programme of ACU carries a mind-blowing statement of Lord Condon that reads: