The Ashes showcased cricket at its best but game still ripe for corruption while fixers continue to swarm around T20

These are the words of Paul Condon, the former head of the Anti-Corruption and Security Unit, when he stepped down from his post in 2011. Corruption in cricket will flourish again, he said, unless…

By repeating these words two years on, I don't want to be a spoil-sport. Quite the opposite: I don't want our sport to be spoiled by match-fixing and spot-fixing.

Yet the Ashes series ended on such a high note that we can all too easily drift into the assumption that cricket worldwide, and in every format, is in fine and uncorrupted health.

Thanks primarily to Michael Clarke, every player contributed to making the last day of the fifth Test as entertaining as it could have been. Some lamented the decision to go off for bad light with four overs left, but that was the time to stop: it was much darker at the Oval than the television screen suggested.

Both umpires, in my opinion, had an almost perfect game. After a summer in which DRS played far too large a part, Aleem Dar of Pakistan and Kumar Dharmasena of Sri Lanka showed how Test umpiring should be done.

And it would have been most unjust if Australia, having made all the running, had lost. It is a sophisticated sport that does not reduce everything to winning and losing but allows for the shade of gray that is a draw.

But as Lord Condon warned us, we should not assume that cricket everywhere is alright.

A Test batsman has pleaded guilty to spot-fixing. Not a fringe player either, but one who has played 61 Tests and scored six Test hundreds, more than anybody else for Bangladesh: Mohammed Ashraful.

Mohammed Ashraful has pleaded guilty to spot fixing

The owner of Ashraful's T20 franchise, Dhaka Gladiators, has been charged with various offences along with eight other players, including Darren Stevens of Kent.

A pretty capable cricket XI can now be assembled of those charged with corruption, as the three Indian players who have been charged include the Test bowler Sree Sreesanth.

"Cricket will always be the global sport most vulnerable to corruption because of the nature of the game - every single ball generates multiple betting opportunities - and the consequential heavy volume of betting," as Lord Condon stated in the Sunday Telegraph two years ago.

"The fixers do not have to fix the outcome of the whole match to arrange a betting coup. The cricketers involved use the twisted logic that they can deliver the fixed event for the betting coup and still go on to win the match."

And while Ashes cricket clings to an old tradition of different values, franchise-owned T20 leagues proliferate around the world. Some players are contracted to a number of teams and cannot feel deep loyalty to all of them.

Lord Condon went on: "In the frenzy of commercialisation cricketers are immersed in a heady atmosphere of monopoly money bidding for franchises, teams and players. An 'anything goes' party atmosphere, with more and more agents, celebrities and even previous fixers re-emerging at matches can seduce cricketers into a flawed and toxic justification for their occasional spot-fixing."

Have the ICC and every national board "shown leadership and determination to keep malpractice to an absolute minimum"?

Some have, some have not. And to judge by the number of "previous fixers" swarming around these T20 leagues, some as coaches and commentators, I for one do not assume that underneath the surface professional cricket worldwide is in a healthy and uncorrupted state.

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Women's Ashes 2013: Why is cricket still such a man's game?

Yes, lack of coverage of women’s sport in endemic, but weren’t the Olympics supposed to herald a new age of sports coverage, where Paralympic and women’s sport were taken seriously and afforded more attention accordingly?

Baroness Heyhoe-Flint played on the England Women’s Cricket team in the 1960s and 70s. She captained the team for the 1976 Ashes series – the first time the England Women’s team had played at Lords. She remembers having to fight tooth and nail for coverage then.

“As captain of the England’s cricket team, I resented the fact that nobody knew what a great team we were. I was a journalist, so I rang up sports editors and got commissions. I made sure each region had press officers – volunteers, we couldn’t pay them,” she tells me.

However, despite acknowledging that coverage of women’s sport is still “minimal”, Baroness Heyhoe-Flint believes things are getting better for women’s cricket, not least because the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) took over control of it from the Women’s Cricket Association in 1998.

“It’s an incredible improvement [under the ECB] because they have the might and professionalism behind them – they have an active and proactive communications department. And also, why shouldn’t they want to promote women’s cricket?” she asks.

Baroness Heyhoe Flint also points out that the BBC now have an editorial lead dedicated to women’s sport - something the Corporation were quick to point out last time they were accused of allowing sexism to sneak into their sports coverage (remember John Inverdale’s Bartoli gaffe at Wimbledon anyone?). Actually, I see a pattern emerging here.

But it’s all a bit chicken and egg isn’t it? The relationship between media coverage of sport at an international level and local community sports is a symbiotic one. Editors will cover women’s sport more when there’s a story to tell – i.e. when they’re winning. But if England is to continue to produce great female cricketers, then more needs to be done in schools and at club levels to get young women in at an early age, which won’t happen when most people aren’t even aware that our international women’s cricket team exist. And how will people become more aware? If the media cover it properly.

The ECB is looking to tackle this, with initiatives like Chance to Shine, which was set up in 2005 with the intention of bringing competitive cricket back to at least a third of the country’s state schools over a ten year period. Eight years in, the ECB boast that it is “one of the biggest sport development programmes in the UK.”

England cricket captain Charlotte Edwards helping out some youngsters with their game

But the fact is, women just aren’t playing cricket, despite it being a relatively low (or no) contact sport. According to the Women’s Sports and Fitness Foundation, just 24,500 women played cricket in the year 2012-13 compared to the 230,000 women who played football over the same time period. So, why is it still such a boy’s game?

I head over to Spencer Cricket Club in Earlsfield, South West London, to find out. I meet several members of the women’s team, who acknowledge that the game they play is different to the men’s team. Captain Rachel, a 29-year-old social worker, says: “I’d acknowledge that we’re not as strong as the men. Also, most of the women on the team started playing at university, there’s less opportunity for coaching or a culture around it for women at a younger age, so we simply haven’t been playing as long.”

Louise, 32, a lobbyist, agrees, but explains that the slower speed can actually make the game more varied. “Occasionally the lack of speed can make the game slower and more turgid, but often it makes things more interesting and more skillful. You can’t rely on the speed of the bowler as much so you have to bat in a different way.”

As I watch the game, it occurs to me what a nice atmosphere there is – the team shouts out encouragement to each other, celebrate each victory together, and commiserate when someone gets bowled out. Rachel explains that she purposely tries to foster such a collegiate atmosphere. “We’re all really aware that this is our weekend – we work really hard during the week, we’re here to have fun.”

Louise agrees – “It’s the nicest possible way to spend a Sunday, so why would you give anyone a hard time?”

Their team mate Jillian, 26, works in finance, and used to play cricket for her native Ireland. Despite not having much of a cricket culture, she explains, Ireland has a much better organised cricket league for girls than we do. “The downside of that is I’ve never been forced to play against boys like some of the team, so I haven’t ever lost that fear.”

Playing for Ireland, she says, tests your commitment to the sport. “You don’t get paid for matches, you even have to pay for your own travel to the games, and you have to organise time off from work. It means the people who do it are really committed. I don’t think I had a summer holiday before I was 21, because I didn’t want to miss a game.”

The girls are lucky, in that they don’t get a particularly hard time from their male team. “We’ve had to earn their respect, and make sure we’re represented,” says Louise. “The worst that happens to us is that we get ignored, or people assume we’re the netball team. We get a few stupid comments as well – such as ‘do you play in skirts?’”

Where would they get that idea from, Pippa? Actually, most of the team play in old whites they’ve inherited from their brothers, as it’s particularly tricky to get women’s whites.

Anyway know that they’re lucky in this respect. Abi Carter is captain of Catford Women’s Cricket Team. In 2012 she moved the entire women’s team from Blackheath Cricket Club (where the women’s team had been based since 2005) to the Catford Wanderers sports club, blaming lack of meaningful support, or even pitch space from Blackheath.

“In my time there I think I probably played at the home ground no more than five times. In the 2011 season they struck a deal with Catford Wanderers to have us play all our games there because there really wasn't space for us to play at Blackheath's grounds.

“We got to the stage where they [Blackheath] asked us not to train at the home ground citing lack of space. We were faced with representing the club but never playing or training at their ground. On top of that, we didn’t have a coach, and despite the fact that our girls scored for the men’s team, we never received any help with umpiring and scoring. When the club was discussing plans for cricket week (where the club has games every day) it was suggested that we should come along to do the barbeque.”

As Abi points out, Blackheath seem to have learnt the saga, as they are now trying to set another women’s side up. And her experience there was in marked contrast to Catford, where the women’s team are made to feel like part of the club – replete with a regular home pitch, a place on the committee, a fixtures secretary and a tea lady. So maybe times are, slowly, changing.

Back to Earlsfield - as I watch the game at Spencer club, everyone is enjoying themselves – really having fun. I’d agree with Louise that there are few nicer ways to spend a Sunday. Most of the team joined when they were new to London, seeing it as a way to meet new people, and it’s become an enduring hobby.

So yes, it would be great to see more coverage of women’s sport, more being done to encourage girls to play cricket at school, because having the best women’s cricket team in the world would be fantastic. But if it also means more women are benefiting from the game at a local club level like this, than that would be fantastic too.

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Wimbledon - Lisicki still smiling after final meltdown

The German clearly found her first Wimbledon final a difficult experience and she looked to be heading for an embarrassing 6-1 6-1 defeat before winning three games in a row to bring some respectability to the scoreline.

She sobbed on court during her second set meltdown but recovered her composure in time to face the world's media.

"I felt fine this morning but it's an occasion that you don't get every day," she told a news conference. "So it's something completely new for me.

"The walk on court is different. You walk on with the flowers. You walk on together. Everything is a little bit different. The feeling, the atmosphere is different."

Lisicki beat defending champion Serena Williams and last year's runner-up Agnieszka Radwanska on the way to the final and, on her favourite surface, was favourite to beat the 15th-seeded Bartoli.

But she was never able to produce consistently the booming serves and thumping forehands which took her to the final and made a string of costly unforced errors.

"I will learn and take away so much from it," Lisicki, seeded 23rd, said after her first Wimbledon final, having reached the semi-final in 2011.

"I've done that in the past. Experience has always helped me so much.

"When I was in the quarters here the first time, when I was in the semis for the first time, and now in the final for the first time. I've always gained my experience here, which is good.

"I hope that next time it will help me to do that one step further."

Lisicki, 23, agreed that the 28-year-old Bartoli, who did not drop a set in the tournament, had more energy left for the final after an easier run.

"Having so many hard matches is draining in the end of the day. I think Marion was fresher today. I think that made a big difference too," she said.

Lisicki was taking plenty of positives from her performances at Wimbledon.

"It's still been a great tournament," she said. "It's been an amazing two weeks.

"I've played my best tennis here. I had to take out the champion and runner-up from last year, so I think that's pretty big. This tournament definitely made me a better player."

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Ashes 2013: Alastair Cook's England still to reach their full potential against Australia

England do not play South Africa, the No1 Test team, again until 2015, but even a whitewash over Australia in this series, while allowing them to leapfrog India into second place, would only take them within hailing distance of Graeme Smith’s team. As such, any notion that Cook’s side are the best in recent times does not yet hold up, though it has the potential.

Most dominant teams have five or six pillars that maintain their excellence, players on whom they can depend to perform more times than not. Before this Ashes series, they were James Anderson and Graeme Swann with the ball and Cook, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen and Matt Prior with the bat. But while Anderson and Swann have played their parts in England’s two wins against Australia, the other pillars have not, with Ian Bell and Joe Root instead playing the telling innings. Happy situation though that is for the two leading run-scorers, it means this England team have consigned Australia to two defeats without ever firing fully.

With hundreds in each match, Bell is making up for when he was Shane Warne’s meek figure of fun in 2005. The “Sherminator”though has since sprouted pecs and discovered a self-belief that comes from within rather than from a pep talk with the psychologist.

Warne has a theory that players such as Bell do better when they have Pietersen alongside, something that will be tested should the latter not recover from his calf strain before the third Test at Old Trafford in nine days.

Root’s continued rise to prominence has not been a revelation for everyone. For those who have been involved in his recent development, his ability to cope with the pressure, expectation and extra quality of international cricket and treat it like a fun game in the park, has not come as a huge surprise. Yet, still only 22, his record at under-19 level is not sparkling so those who have known him longer reckon something crucial has clicked in the past few years for him to rival Cook’s impressive start to Test cricket seven years ago.

“Well, they are both mature for young men and Alastair had a similar mentality when he was Joe’s age,” said Graham Gooch, England’s batting coach yesterday. “He was mature in the mind, he knew exactly how he could score runs and I think anyone who saw Joe in the winter saw that too.

“When he was suddenly promoted to the one-day side in India last winter, he walked straight in and you’d have thought he’d been playing this sort of game the whole time. He has a confidence about him.”

Australian supporters at Lord’s were certainly lusting over his calm authority. While their young batsmen were careless, uncertain and impatient at Lord’s, Root exuded control that sets up winning scores in Test matches, at least until he was caught playing a ramp shot for 180. Yet even that was an attempt to reach his 200 with the minimum of hold-up after Michael Clarke put most of his fielders on the boundary.

Australia felt they had a good plan for Root, to pitch it up and swing it, given his preference for playing off the back foot until well set. But plans are all very well if you have the bowlers to activate them, which Australia do not seem overly blessed with at present.

Normally, injury to Pietersen would be a concern for England but apart from a handy 64 in the second innings at Trent Bridge, his lack of runs (21 in the other three innings this series) has not been much missed.

Last time Australia were here England managed to win the Ashes without him playing the last three Tests after he damaged his Achilles tendon, which could be repeated unless he recovers fully from his calf strain.

Who would come in for Pietersen is not clear, as England do not have great strength in depth apart from in the pace bowling department. Ben Stokes and Eoin Morgan both trained with England in the build up to the Lord’s match while Ravi Bopara has been happily restored to the England one-day team where he once more shone, with ball as well as bat. But while occupation of the crease retains its appeal for sides 2-0 up in a five-match series, you cannot rule out Nick Compton.

While England’s batting has discovered new pillars, the bowling has been reliant, as ever, on Swann and Anderson, which is perhaps how it should be in a four-man attack. Although not quite Warne and Glenn McGrath, they are nevertheless a potent combination on the dry, bare pitches ordered by England, though their best performance has yet to coincide in the same match this series.

When it does, and when Cook, Trott and Prior find their appetite, Australia could need trauma counsellors.

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Ashes 2013: Joe Root a 'special player' but he still needs to be tested in different conditions, says Graham Gooch

Root confirmed his arrival in Ashes cricket with a man of the match performance in the Lord’s Test which vindicated the decision to promote him to open the batting with Alastair Cook.

Root has now made two centuries in eight Tests since his debut in Nagpur in December and at the age of 22 is set to follow Cook by establishing himself as a Test player at an early age.

In the past English batsman have taken a long time to mature into Test cricketers but Root has taken every challenge in his stride, apart from a small blip in form on the tour to New Zealand in March.

“For every country in the world, sometimes players get thrown up who are not only skillful, have good disciplines and good habits but are very mature characters for young men,” said Gooch.

“I think from the first time we all experienced Joe in India, a few months back, it was quite evident that this lad was very mature mentally, had a good work ethic and was very keen to learn.

"One of the most important ingredients for a sportsman is he was prepared to drive his own career forward. He's not waiting for advice; he's seeking it. He's seeking information, looking for new ideas.

"It was not a surprising decision when he forced his way into the side on merit at Nagpur in that Test, and he's gone on and on.”

A wise old owl such as Gooch is wary of making bold predictions for Root who has been compared by some observers to Michael Vaughan and even Len Hutton.

He has already eclipsed Vaughan by making an Ashes hundred at Lord’s, becoming the first Yorkshireman to do so with his 180 in the second Test since Hutton and Willie Watson both scored centuries in 1953.

“One innings doesn't make you a regular for a long period of time. He's shown good promise. He still needs to be tested in different conditions,” said Gooch.

“He's not a complete player like nobody is a complete player. He's a young player with great promise and great skill and anyone who sees him play would think that he's going to have a fruitful career, but you can't be sure.”

Hours after Australia’s defeat at Lord’s Cricket Australia published an unwisely timed media release bragging of the success of its Big Bash Twenty20 League.

“Cricket Australia's strategy for the BBL is working,” it said. Gooch believes the rise of Twenty20 cricket is now eating away at batting techniques that are exposed by the demands of Test cricket.

“Anyone can concentrate for 15 minutes but to score a Test hundred you need to concentrate for a long period of time and those skills I think worldwide are being chipped away at the edges by the amount of one-day cricket and Twenty20 cricket.

“There's lots of different competitions. If you're a traditionalist and still think Test cricket is the benchmark you can see with the number of competitions that are popping up and the rewards that are available, you can see the possibility of them chipping away at the edges of the traditional game.

"So you’ve got to work hard to try and keep your players on track and try and educate them as well as you can on the mental skills that are necessary to bat long. It is a different kind of skill.”

Gooch’s old foe Allan Border blamed the batsmen admitting it was hard to differentiate between the tail and the top order at Lord’s.

"Our major concern right now is the performance of the top six. I could honestly say the nine, 10 and jack looked more competent than our one, two and three,” he said.

"If that was me in the top three I'd be embarrassed. We need to settle on our best 11 and stay with it. I'm a believer in the pick and stick method, so we need to find our best 11 suited to the conditions and stick with it."

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England's Joe Root shows Bunbury Under-15 cricket festival is still hitting the heights

Only the South African-educated Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen missed out on cutting their teeth at the five-day event, now in its 27th year and being held at Durham University this week.

On average, two cricketers a year have emerged to become international players. David English — the founder, organiser and fundraiser who has become known as The Godfather of English Cricket — hailed Bunbury No?60 Joe Root after his stunning performance for England.

“It’s a route to being an England cricketer and the boys know the senior ECB [England and Wales Cricket Board] officials are watching,” English said. “It’s a showcase for the boys. As Paul Collingwood told them on Monday morning, seven years ago Joe Root was standing there getting his cap, just like they were.”

Philanthropist David Fitzherbert is midway through rowing 140 miles along the Thames to Putney in his sculling boat Rocinante.

The aim of his venture, which ends on Saturday, is to raise £10,000 to bring rowing to the pupils of several state schools in Hammersmith & Fulham. Few state schools in the UK have access to rowing and even those on the Thames in London are rarely able to afford the extra cost of this sport.

“For £10,000 it is possible to get a squad of some 16 boys and girls from one school to learn to row for a year,” Fitzherbert said. Supporting donations should be sent to The Broadwall Foundation.

Email your letters on school sport to gareth.davies@telegraph.co.uk

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VIDEO: Clarke still 'confident' of series win

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