KEY POINTS:
Internet betting on cricket has become massive.
In Pakistan and India, where gambling on the result of a game is illegal, gangs gather billions of rupees in bets.
Some do their business from vans with computers in the back, speeding off if they're seen.
Bets cover almost anything
in cricket: not just the highest individual scorer or the total after so many overs, but also obscure details such as the number of times the stumps are disturbed in a session or the number of appearances by the 12th man.
For a single match between Pakistan and India, followed with a passion not felt anywhere else in the world, an estimated $1.4 billion will be placed in illegal bets.
"The large sums of money being bet also mean the threat of corruption is a significant one," says the International Cricket Council.
Television commentator Kishore Bhimani was accosted by a gangster called Sharad Shetty, who runs illegal gambling in India and Pakistan as the right-hand man of an even more powerful figure.
"He asked me to send signals on TV if rain was threatened or there were any dramatic happenings in the dressing room or any other naughtiness," said Mr Bhimani. "I fled with my life intact."
In January 2003, two months before the last World Cup, Sharad Shetty was shot dead in Dubai - where the ICC now has its headquarters.
A suspected terrorist, Dawood Ibrahim, is one of the leading figures in the corruption that threatens cricket.
Ibrahim's name surfaced again during Pakistan's judicial inquiry into cricket match-fixing by Justice Qayyum. Published in 1999, Qayyum's report recounted how Ibrahim had rung Pakistan captain Wasim Akram during a match in Sharjah, a Gulf state which became almost synonymous with match-fixing.
The Qayyum inquiry resulted in another Pakistan captain, Salim Malik, being banned from cricket for life; Akram was banned from being captain ever again and fined, as were several other Pakistani players.
In India, the captain Mohammed Azharuddin was also banned after a report into match-fixing.
In South Africa, captain Hansie Cronje was found guilty of taking money from bookmakers and banned from cricket. Cronje had almost 20 overseas bank accounts, according to the Scorpions, South Africa's crack anti-crime unit.
Cronje died in a plane crash in 2002, which was found to be the result of human error. But a bookmaker called Hanif Cadbury was killed in a shooting near Johannesburg. Indian cricket agent Mark Mascarenhas died in car crash in a game park in India in the same year. Some observers detected a pattern, but it has not been repeated - until Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer's death, last Sunday, in Kingston.
Some of the cricketers found guilty by Qayyum remain in their present set-up: Pakistan captain Inzamam ul-Haq, who has since resigned, was fined by Qayyum, although only for being uncooperative.
Mushtaq Ahmed, now Pakistan's bowling coach, was fined the largest amount.
The International Cricket Council established its anti-corruption and security unit (ACSU) and retired Metropolitan Police Commissioner Lord Condon produced a devastating 75-page report that concluded match-fixing was rife throughout the game.
Lord Condon said cricket had responded robustly to his report.
"I do not think match-fixing is the problem that it was," he told Radio 5 Live. "Nevertheless, there are some very unsavoury people involved in seeking to fix matches, or parts of matches."
- AGENCIES
