The International Cricket Council's anti-corruption chief says he's confident illegal gamblers won't be able to influence the upcoming World Cup.
Indian players celebrate winning 2011 Cricket World Cup. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Ronnie Flanagan said "evil" illegal gamblers using the grooming methods of paedophiles to try and corrupt cricketers have not gone away, but he is confident the tournament will be clean.
Flanagan said the authorities in host countries Australia and New Zealand had done everything in their power to ensure the tournament was free of corruption.
"I think it is important that (fans) can come with confidence knowing this will be true competition between teams fought out on ability and perhaps little bit of luck," he says. "A tournament that is free of corruption or the threat of corruption."
Match and spot-fixing scandals have dogged cricket over the last few years, but Flanagan, head of the ICC's Anti-Corruption and Security Unit, praised the national and state governments in host countries for enacting legislation to criminalise manipulating sporting events.
Flanagan says the Australian and New Zealand lawmakers, police and his unit had already been working together for two years to prevent any corruption.
"We know there are rotten people out there, criminal people, who will do all in their power to get at players and others of influence in the game," he says.
"They'll trick them, they'll coerce them, they'll try and attract them, they're almost like paedophiles in how they attempt to groom them to get them to do whatever suits their nefarious intentions in terms of illegal betting."
The tournament starts on February 14.