The Australian cricket fraternity is furious after a newspaper report claimed that the ICC had opened a spot-fixing probe into the slow batting of openers Brad Haddin and Shane Watson in their World Cup game against Zimbabwe.

The match-fixing innuendo reached a flashpoint when Sri Lankan vice-captain Mahela Jayawardena threatened legal action against a local government-run TV network for implying he was on the take after batting poorly in his team's 11-run loss to Pakistan, which was still playing under its own spot-fixing cloud.

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"It's time for someone at the ICC to take more leadership on this issue. This (match and spot-fixing) is the biggest issue in the game, it really is. Scheduling is another but that won't be an issue if there's no cricket and if match-fixing spirals out of control there won't be any cricket," Gilchrist said.

"People won't want to become stakeholders in our sport if match-fixing is allowed to flourish. The ICC has taken some action recently but I personally think the penalties need to be the harshest possible. I would like to see a life ban for anyone who enters into ill-dealings in the sport," The Herald Sun quoted him, as saying.

The ICC's anti-corruption unit has been criticised for lacking the investigative power to expose illicit betting activity. Sawani said the ICC's anti-corruption unit was doing everything possible.