Ricky Ponting wants cricket cheats exposed promptly

Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting.

Ricky Ponting has urged cricket authorities to quickly make an example of those known to have fixed matches, saying there is nothing worse for the game than the shadow hanging over it.

The former Australian captain said rumours of corrupt behaviour had circulated for years and he pleaded with governing bodies – the International Cricket Council's anti-corruption watchdog and individual boards – to act swiftly so players and fans could have full faith that what happens on the field was legitimate.

''We've all been aware of a certain amount of corruption in the game for a long time now and there's always just been a bit of smoke, there hasn't been much fire around it," he said.

"But like a lot of other big issues in our games, whether it's drugs or whatever, the sooner the governing bodies can get to the bottom of these issues and actually start making an example of some of the people they know are in the wrong and they know are guilty, the better off we're all going to be,'' said Ponting, who was speaking to SEN as a director of NSR Australia, a scouting company that helps talented high-school athletes into the US College system.

''There is nothing worse than having that [corruption] tag around, the worry about the integrity of cricket, there is nothing worse than that, and that is what every governing body would be fearing and a lot of the players. It takes away a bit from the game they love,'' Ponting said.

''The sooner we can get to the bottom of it ... and fans and spectators and sponsors can be 100 per cent happy with the spectacle in the middle, the better off we will all be.''

Former New Zealand batsman Lou Vincent and his former Sussex teammate Naved Arif have been charged with fixing in English county cricket, and Vincent faces more charges dating to the 2011 and 2012 Champions League, in which Cricket Australia has a 30 per cent financial stake.

New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum has also testified that he was approached by "player X" as far back as the 2008 IPL and a tour of England later that year. McCullum rebuffed both advances and reported them to authorities.

The ICC's anti-corruption unit, set up in response to the Hansie Cronje scandal in 2001, has often been criticised for its failure to claim a significant scalp.

A British tabloid exposed the scam that resulted in Pakistanis Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir being jailed for spot-fixing during a Test in England, although cricket detectives had collected evidence that they subsequently handed over to police. Delhi police arrested three Rajasthan Royals players during last year's IPL, and the man backed by Australia and England to be the next ICC chairman, Narayanaswami Srinivasan, has been stood down by the Indian Supreme Court amid corruption allegations relating to his family and his IPL franchise, the Chennai Super Kings.

The anti-corruption unit does not have the power to tap phones, arrest or go undercover, but is conducting a global war against corruption at all levels of the game. In 2011 it was investigating 281 cases worldwide involving fixers, illegal approaches and honey traps, and monitored the suspicious activities of 67 individuals, London's Telegraph newspaper revealed this month.