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As they entered their dressing rooms at the Sharjah Stadium after practice yesterday, a sign above the door warned the West Indies and Pakistan cricketers: No mobile phones.

In the adjacent corner, a small, elevated closed-circuit camera monitored their every move. Another similar device watched them in their hotel foyer.

They will be there throughout the two Tests and three One-Day Internationals of the unique series, the first held outside an accredited Test-playing country and only grudgingly agreed to by the host Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on the West Indies' insistence because of war and rumours of war just beyond their borders.

The measures, more typical of Hollywood than Lord's, are part of the drive by the International Cricket Council (ICC) to preclude dealings with bookmakers that led to the life bans for match-fixing against former Test captain Hansie Cronje of South Africa.

Robert Smalley and Bruce Ewan, members of the ICC's Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU), established 18 months ago at great expense by the ICC under former head of the Metropolitan Police, Lord Condon, are mounting the operation.

Smalley, the ACU's security and support manager, and Ewan, the information manager, on Tuesday night spelt out to both teams the purpose of and need for their mission.

They were explicit and made everyone aware of how widespread betting on the game is, West Indies team manager Ricky Skerritt said. I don't think any one on our side is unhappy with the measures.

It was startling to learn, for instance, that as much as $50 million is bet on every day of every international match the world over, he added. When you're talking that sort of money, you realise why bookies are willing to offer a lot of money for information and why the players have to be careful in their dealings.

In a more conventional, but still controversial area, the players' behaviour would be monitored by match referee Mike Denness whose disciplinary action against six Indian players in his last Test in South Africa, in November, led to a tense stand-off between their board and the International Cricket Council (ICC).

Indian board president Jagmohan Dalmiya demanded the former England captain's withdrawal for the next, and final Test, and, while the South Africans acceded, the ICC responded by declaring the match unofficial.

The ICC subsequently set up a commission to review the match referee's terms of reference but Dalmiya, whose board objected to two of its appointees, will doubtless see Denness' appointment, even before the commission has met, as deliberate provocation.

Since there are 19 other ICC referees, he would have a point. Insensitivity, if not arrogance, are no less appropriate expressions.

© The Barbados Nation