Exclusive – Vaughan: Jail sentences should help to clear up corruption in cricket

Michael Vaughan hopes the jail sentences handed out to Pakistan cricketers Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir will help to finally rid the game of corruption.

Former Pakistan captain Butt has been jailed for 30 months for his part in the conspiracy to bowl deliberate no-balls in last year's Test match against England, while Asif will serve one year and young bowler Mohammad Amir six months.

Vaughan now hopes the convictions will act as a deterrent to other players planning to engage in corrupt activities and has called on the International Cricket Council to do everything in its power to stamp out the cheats.

“This is a very strong message that if you’re going to do it, good luck, because, if you get caught, you're going to be spending a bit of time behind bars,” he told Keys & Gray.

“It’s a bad day because cricket is getting the wrong types of headlines. But we’ve got to look at the positives. We’ve got to think this could and should send a shockwave through the game and hopefully stop any future players or players presently playing from getting involved in these kinds of activities.

“I am sure there are others out there. The ICC do a good job. They do a lot of work behind the scenes, they can’t be seen to be saying too much, but they do a lot behind the scenes.

“I know they will be investigating others and following leads and I just hope they are doing everything they can and I just hope this court case is a starting point of trying to clear it out of the game for good.”