ACB bear brunt of the blame for 'cover-up' by Christopher Martin-Jenkins

Alec Stewart, England captain: ``I've played 80-odd Test matches for England and I've never seen anything like that.

``The ACB aren't going to publish everything that happens - some things are public and some things are private.

``This isn't going to affect us at all - we've come here to win a Test and square the series and we'll prepare in the same way as we've done before.''

Matthew Engel, editor of Wisden: ``This is one of the biggest scandals that cricket has ever faced. The issue is that for four years Australian cricket has covered this up.

``You rebuild public trust by being honest with people.''

John Howard, Australian prime minister: ``It's clear with the benefit of hindsight that . . . if the incident had been revealed at the time and the actions taken at the time been made known, it would then have been seen in a much better perspective.

``Perhaps some of the connotations that are now being presented would not have been presented.

``Australians love their cricket and anything that looks as though it's knocking cricket off its pedestal is something that's going to deeply disturb Australians.''

Richie Benaud (above), TV presenter and former Australia captain: ``One of the most appalling things is that it's been covered up for so long. I would regard the ACB as being glaringly at fault if they kept it a secret.''

Jackie Kelly, Australian Sports Minister: ``It sends a message to all Australian sportsmen that they do carry the flagship of Australia's reputation, Australia's hopes and are role models for many young kids in Australia who play sport.

``I think it has led to significant disillusionment with two Aussie icons.''

Kim Hughes, former Australia captain: ``It's different from match fixing but it's still a shock. Two blokes who have got tremendous records are now tarnished. It's very disappointing for the game.''

Graham Cowdrey, cricket odds-setter for spread bet firm City Index, and former Kent batsman: ``In my 15 years of playing first-class cricket in England I never came across anything like this.

``For six years I wrote on cricket betting for the Racing Post. But I never said anything about games I was involved with and I certainly never advised anyone to bet heavily on Kent.''

Kahlid Mahmood, chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board: ``We will certainly lodge a protest with the ACB and will also formally approach the ICC in the executive board's meeting to be held at Christchurch in January.''

Neil Harvey, former Australia captain: ``I never ever thought I'd see an Australian cricketer slump to these depths. It really hurts me.''

Geoffrey Boycott (above): ``It's fairly common knowledge that certain players have given information to bookmakers about the pitch and the weather and who's likely to bat first and how the match is likely to go. If you come clean at the time and say, 'Look, I've done something wrong', you have a better chance of people giving you the benefit of the doubt.

``Shane Warne would not come back to Pakistan to give evidence, neither would Tim May. Now it begs the question, was this one of the reasons why he wouldn't come back?

``I'll tell you this, if someone had said to me, 'Geoffrey, I'll give you £20,000 if you throw the match', and I then reported it to my cricket board as Tim May and Shane Warne did, you bet your bottom dollar I'd have gone back to the judge and told him face to face I had nothing to hide.

``Once you've covered it up once, people start to think, 'Is there another cover-up to come out?' ``