Adams fears fixing is forever

Jimmy Adams, the West Indies captain, has questioned whether the game will ever be free of corruption. "Will you ever get to a point where people will never be approached? How do you solve that? You will always have gambling," he said as his team arrived in Perth for their Australian tour. "That is the root problem. How do you remove that?"

Jimmy Adams, the West Indies captain, has questioned whether the game will ever be free of corruption. "Will you ever get to a point where people will never be approached? How do you solve that? You will always have gambling," he said as his team arrived in Perth for their Australian tour. "That is the root problem. How do you remove that?"

At the same time, West Indies announced that they would not be launching their own inquiry into allegations that Brian Lara took money from a bookmaker to play badly. The coach, Roger Harper, said the West Indies Cricket Board would leave any investigations to the International Cricket Council.

"If Brian comes out and tells you he's not involved, that's good enough for me," Harper said. "We're there for him as a team and we support him all the way."

Lara has been accused by an Indian bookmaker of accepting $40,000 in return for under-performing in two one-day matches. Lara has denied the allegations.

The West Indies manager, Richard Skerritt, said Lara had asked his lawyers to look at the claims and had been told not to comment further. "He's been in good spirits but he's obviously a little bit distressed," Skerritt said. "It's difficult for any player to have mud slung around him when they have categorically said they were not involved. We are focusing on the cricket, trying to give Brian as much support as we can, but we are going to try to do everything we can not to distract us from why we are here."