Sir Paul Condon's corruption busters have finally rolled into Colombo, but it remains to be seen whether they can hasten the sluggish cricket board match fixing inquiry, a process which has been shrouded in secrecy, towards its successful completion.

The Sri Lanka board first announced that it was going to launch an independent inquiry in June last year, but waited until the publication of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) report, which named several international cricketers within it, including former Sri Lankan captain, Arjuna Ranatunga, and Aravinda de Silva, before officially launching an internal investigation.

The Sri Lankan cricket board appointed Desmond Fernando, a Presidential Counsel, to investigate the allegations made by Mukesh Gupta, the now infamous bookie. Fernando was given 30-days to report back to the board, but five-months later there is still no report on the table.

Fernando has travelled far and wide to gather information, accompanying the ICC's Anti Corruption unit to India and England, but struggled to obtain formal written submissions from the two players, even though they both publicly promised their cooperation after steadfastly proclaiming their innocence, forcing Sir Paul Condon's planned visit to Sri Lanka in March to be postponed.

Finally, however, Fernando has gathered the submissions and the first members of the five-man Anti-Corruption Unit arrived last week, raising hopes that the inquiry may, belatedly, gather some momentum.

Condon came to Sri Lanka ostensibly to meet cricket officials and politicians. He will leave Colombo tomorrow after talks with both the Sports Minister and cricket board Chairman, leaving the planned player interviews later this week to Desmond Fernando and his senior Scotland Yard detectives.

It is unclear, however, whether a meeting with De Silva will materialise after all, as he is believed to be departing for India tomorrow, where he will be a playing a series of exibition matches. Sir Paul Condon - who consistently declined to discuss specific details on the Sri Lankan inquiry, which he stressed was the responsibility of the Sri Lankan board, at a media briefing today - refused to comment on the possibility of De Silva's interview being postponed once again.

When contacted this evening, Desmond Fernando declined, as he has done throughout the inquiry, to speak to the media, stating to a respected cricket journalist that, "He was too busy to talk."

No-one expects Fernando to reveal all his cards before the action gets interesting, but nor should the public have been denied answers to innocuous questions such as the date of scheduled appointments or to general queries about the progress of the inquiry and it's expected date of completion.

Moreover, the drawn-out nature of the inquiry was always likely, but would have been far easier to bear if one was convinced that a proper inquiry was actually in full swing. These are important times for Sri Lankan cricket and one wouldn't expect allegations against national heroes to be treated trivially, but, as Condon said tonight: "The match fixing scandal is a cloud hanging over cricket. The quicker we draw a line under it and move on the better."

In fact, the recently appointed Sri Lankan Interim Board met with Desmond Fernando last week and was briefed about the current situation. They have made no formal statement on the current state of the inquiry so far, but Malalsekera said tonight that: "Everything is in the hands of Desmond Fernando and we are awaiting his report. We hope that it will be submitted within the next two weeks."

Once the report has been submitted, assuming, wishfully perhaps, that it is the final one and not an Interim report, then the Sri Lankan board will then examine the findings and take the action it deems necessary. The ICC's Code of Conduct Commission, headed by Lord Hugh Griffiths, will then review the board's action to ensure that it is both sufficient and fair.

Malalsekera stressed that no action would be taken without consultation with the ICC: "We want to be in sync with the ICC on this issue. The decisions we make could have a bearing on other countries and we have to ensure that we clean up the game."

Whether the tainted game can truly be cleansed remains to seen. Sir Paul Condon, more like a soothsaying diplomat now than the hardnosed British bobby, who walked the streets during the time of the Kray Brothers, believes it can and that the Anti Corruption Unit was already producing results.

"We have already seen a reduction in the amount of corruption within the game during the course of our investigations," he said. "I think we can make match fixing so difficult that it is not worth the risk and help draw a line under the past."

"I have completed a major 70-page report last week, which will go to the ICC Executive in for their meeting in June," he revealed. "It contains 25 common sense, but radical recommendations that will help world cricket face the future with confidence."

© CricInfo Ltd.