Harare — Former West Indies captain Brian Lara has blasted bookmakers who try to influence the outcome of matches through unethical means for financial gains.

Lara, who illuminated the Zimbabwe Cricket awards night with his wit, launched an attack on corrupt betting syndicates that take advantage of gullible players using their cash muscle. "My plea to the bookmakers is please don't try to influence the outcome of matches.

"Bookmakers can always make money even without deceit because if they didn't, they wouldn't have been in the business. "Match-fixing or spot-fixing kills the game and should not be allowed to happen," he said. The former West Indies batsman was speaking in the wake of the recent match-fixing scandal involving bookmakers and some members of the Pakistan squad currently on tour of England.

Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif were last week suspended by the ICC pending investigations into spot-fixing allegations leveled against them.

Lara, who was the guest of honour at the ZC annual awards ceremony, spoke on a diversity of issues and bared his soul over the developments in the Pakistan camp. He urged cricket players to shun corrupt bookmakers and preserve the integrity of the game.

Lara also called pleaded with the International Cricket Council to be considerate in dealing with the implicated players including 18-year old Amir who had great potential in his career. He suggested that the affected players should be assisted in a rehabilitation programme instead of getting heavy punishment.

He said the match-fixing scourge has become a cancer that is threatening the life and soul of cricket with bookmakers prowling around with fat chequebooks to lure players into illicit deals.

Revelations in the Pakistan camp were just a tip of the iceberg to the dirty games taking place beyond the cricket field. Last week members of the Sri Lankan team revealed they were approached by people described as "suspicious characters" more than once over the last year.

Australian coach Tim Nielsen and four players from the team also confirmed they had been accosted by illegal bookmakers asking information for "sinister reasons."