Security fears as Graveney sent sinister letters

English cricket's ruling body has called in the police to investigate a series of threatening letters sent to the chairman of selectors David Graveney and also directed at senior officials within the sport.

An individual has been sending letters to Graveney for some time about cricketing matters, but they have become more sinister recently and after showing them to the England and Wales Cricket Board, Scotland Yard detectives were contacted.

"I get a lot of mail, which goes with the territory, and I actually try to ring people back if they are brave enough to leave their telephone number, which tends to produce the odd quite amusing phone call because there's a silence on the end of the phone," Graveney said. "The conversations tend to be a little bit more sensible than the letters. This is an entirely different matter. I've spoken to him on a number of occasions. The letters themselves stopped for a while and now they have started again, and they're not only directed at me, but other people.

"I showed them to the Board, which I think I should do. They're not necessarily my employers, but other people within the Board were being mentioned, and they thought it was necessary to show it to the police. I know the parameters of my job, but when as a husband and a father, then you think that they're of some concern, therefore you've got to take the appropriate measures."

While England do not have any specific security measures in place for their administrators, the players are closely monitored by full-time consultant Bob Smalley, who was appointed by the International Cricket Council in the aftermath of the match-fixing scandal.

Smalley shares his time between the England team and the West Indies and is responsible for ensuring the players are not approached by outsiders in and around the dressing-room under the new ICC guidelines. There was also a security review conducted for the team last year when several players suffered uncomfortable situations travelling to and from grounds during the NatWest Series after being spotted by rowdy Pakistan fans.

England attempted to prevent a recurrence this summer by travelling on a coach, but the experiment was shelved because logistically it was proving difficult with some players often wanting to return home after matches.

* Jagmohan Dalmiya, the president of the Indian cricket board, rejected a compromise over the weekend concerning sponsorship during the Champions' Trophy in Sri Lanka which has again raised doubts over the players' participation. Dalmiya rejected an International Cricket Council plan, even though it had been accepted by India's players, arguing that it could lead to the Indian board facing legal action and instead put forward a different proposal.