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England's batting coach felt majority of cricketers want to play an honest game, face up to the challenge of the opposition and give it their best shot.
Graham Gooch, England's batting coach, has called the latest revelations into cricket corruption a "sad day" for cricket, following claims that Indian bookmakers had subverted a broad spectrum of players, including some from county cricket, for the purposes of spot-fixing.
"It's very sad for the game that these stories keep raising their ugly heads," said Gooch yesterday (Sunday) in Colombo ahead of England's forthcoming Test tour of Sri Lanka. "We want the game to be clean and a fair contest. The vast majority of cricketers want to play an honest game, face up to the challenge of the opposition and give it their best shot.
"They want to know, if they win, that they've given it their best and their opponents have given it their best too. That's what you play for."
Gooch was Essex's batting coach when Mervyn Westfield was at the club, so knows first hand the shock of being close to someone caught out and punished for wrongdoing.
Westfield, along with three Pakistan Test players, Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir, were all found guilty of spot-fixing and given jail sentences, but Gooch feels prevention is more preferable than prosecution.
"Hopefully, there will be a lot better education of young players in terms of what players need to be wary of and on their guard over," Gooch added. "But we know in life, not just cricket or sport, there are people who want to get up to things that are reprehensible. All we can do in cricket is try to put our house in order."
Gooch, whose role as batting coach was recently made full-time, came out with seven players a week earlier than the main squad in order to work on playing spin better after England's recent 3-0 Test defeat to Pakistan.
Andrew Strauss, Ian Bell and Matt Prior, have faced Monty Panesar, James Tredwell and Samit Patel, even practising on the same square as the pitch for the second Test.
"Coming out here early is not a response to losing 3-0 to Pakistan, so we're not calling them naughty boy nets," said Gooch. "The fact is that English players need to become more accustomed to playing spin in Asian conditions. We play a lot of cricket against Asian teams, so this and recent Lion's programmes, are really geared towards finding out how those teams operate in home conditions."
A good player of spin bowling, Gooch has emphasised how England need to bat smarter and more aggressively against Asian spinners, while maintaining a solid defence. Some batsmen, like Bell, were found wanting in all three facets against Pakistan though Gooch conceded that the Decision Review System (DRS) had made things more difficult for today's batsmen.
"The DRS has certainly put a different perspective on how you play spin bowlers. You need to adjust but I don't think you should let it cloud your mind. It's a challenge that's here to stay."
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