TIFFANY CHERRY, PRESENTER,“THE NATION”: Our next guest is a former fast bowler and Sheffield Shield Captain for NSW. As a cricket commentator he has worked for ABC Radio, Fox Sports and of course channel nine. Earlier this week it was announced that he will be taking over possibly one of the most difficult jobs in sport, coach of Pakistan's cricket team, please welcome Geoff Henry Lawson.

Geoff Lawson was one of Australia's most accomplished bowlers but when he was confirmed as Pakistan's new cricket coach, some in the media poked fun at his appointment.

MICK MALLOY, PRESENTER, “THE NATION”: What the hell are you thinking? Is this a dare? You know how this job became available don’t you?

With rumours swirling around the sudden death of the previous coach Bob Woolmer, this was world cricket's most talked about job vacancy.

MICK MALLOY, “THE NATION”: Would it have been different for you if it had been found to be murder as oppose to natural causes?

GEOFF LAWSON, COACH, PAKISTANI CRICKET TEAM: Yes.

Bob Woolmer died in Jamaica in March this year, just one day after Pakistan was knocked out in the first round of the cricket World Cup. There were remarkable scenes when the team was told of Woolmer's death as Jamaican Prime Minister, Portia Simpson-Miller, consoled the distraught players.

TALAT ALI, PAKISTANI CRICKET TEAM MANAGER: We have lost a great guy in Bob. As time heals and time goes on, we will, you know, come out of this difficult time. As I said, in Jamaica, it was a very, very difficult time.

In Lahore, Dateline was allowed to film the first post World Cup training camp for the Pakistani national team. When Woolmer died the media placed the entire team under a cloud of suspicious. After Pakistan's shocking performance in the World Cup there was intense speculation that the coach and some of the team might have been involved in match fixing. It's a charge that's plagued Pakistani cricket for years.

TALAT ALI: We were not arrested, we were not detained. We were - we in fact wanted to help the police and the police were very co-operative with us. They wanted to interview some of the players and we said fine but we will do it after the game against Zimbabwe and they said "Fine".

GEOFF LAWSON: You’ve got a good seam, you set everything up, you got everything right, put your hands here.

These fortunate students from Sydney's Scott's College know that Geoff Lawson is one of Australia's most talented professional coaches. Lawson clearly loves nurturing talent but he knows that when it comes to his new job in Pakistan, protecting his players from rumour and innuendo will be just as important.

GEOFF LAWSON: One of the problems the team will have is to ignore the extraneous external upsetting, inaccurate opinions and get on with playing the game. But avoiding those sort of factors will be key to the players doing the best they can. People can say what they like in the press, but it is how the players get on with their job, that's the important thing.

But why do allegations of corruption and match-fixing continue to plague the Pakistani team?

HANSI CRONJE, FORMER SOUTH AFRICAN CAPTAIN, PRESS CONFERENCE: They phoned me and urged me to go ahead with fixing the match.

Back in 2000 when South African Captain Hansi Cronje broke down and admitted to corrupt dealings with bookies, perceptions of the gentleman's game changed for ever. The fact that South Africa's coach throughout Cronje's crooked period was none other than Bob Woolmer has led to no end of unsubstantiated speculation in Pakistan.

SARFRAZ NAWAZ, FORMER PAKISTANI CRICKETER: I personally feel that Bob Woolmer knew each and everything, even he knew the name of the bookies, he knew the name of where the match was fixed and which match was fixed.

Sarfraz Nawaz is one of Pakistan's most successful test cricketers, having played under Imran Khan and against Geoff Lawson. He believes cricket in Pakistan has long been corrupted by a massive illegal gambling racket. Dateline was allowed to film this bookies assistant taking illegal bets on local and international matches. Gamblers don't just bet on the game's outcome but on the batting line up, the number of overs a bowler will bowl and some time even the condition of the pitch. Certainly in the past, there has been strong evidence of players and bookies conspiring to fix the odds.

SARFRAZ NAWAZ: So this gambling mafia they act like that, you know, they have their own people on each and every ground from producing pitches, to umpiring, to players...They are all involved.

JUSTICE MALIK MUHHAMED QAYYUM: What I discovered was that one, there were players involved in match fixing and there is great evidence to the effect that match fixing is going on.

Seven years ago Justice Malik Muhhamed Qayyum was asked to investigate corruption in Pakistani cricket.

JUSTICE MALIK MUHHAMED QAYYUM: There are all sorts of people involved in this. Apart from the players there are bookmakers, there are other dangerous people who are at the back of it and there are very few, therefore, who are willing to give any evidence, or, I had to virtually force some people to tell the truth.

Although his inquiry's powers were limited, Justice Qayyum fined 8 players, either because of their contact with bookies, or in the case of former captain, Inzamam-ul-Haq, their unwillingness to cooperate with the investigation. In his report Qqyyum found sufficient evidence to convict Salim Malik of match fixing and recommended that a life ban be imposed on Malik, then the team captain. According to Justice Qayyum, it was clear there were high level attempts to sabotage his inquiry.

JUSTICE MALIK MUHHAMED QAYYUM: Towards the end of the enquiry I was asked by th then government to enquire into the match between Pakistan and Bangladesh in England which Pakistan lost. When I started the enquiry, about two weeks thereafter, my appointment notification was rescinded by the government. And I was asked not to do it, the reason being that there were very high persons whose names were involved in that.

Justice Qayyum also recommended that bowler, Mushtaq Ahmed should not be given any office of responsibility on the team but at this year's World Cup in the West Indies, Mushtaq Ahmed was Bob Woolmer’s assistant coach. Although Geoff Lawson says he can't really comment on the failure to follow the judge's advice, he believes lessons have been learned.

GEOFF LAWSON: The fact that people were found to have done the wrong thing and fined, that's a good thing for World Cricket, and of course the anti-corruption commission is significantly strengthened since that time so it's become, on the one hand, very much harder to be involved in any sort of issues of that era. I think players have woken up to the fact that the game deserves more than that sort of treatment. So it's a two-fold effect. It's more enforcement but the players have become far more responsible.

Despite Lawson's up beat assessment, the Pakistani team has continued to arouse suspicions in the years since Justice Qayyum's report. And it was the team's dismal performance at this year's World Cup that really started the rumour mill in earnest.

SARFRAZ NAWAZ: First match, Pakistan played against the West Indies and you can see the players playing under par.

Sarfraz Nawaz is convinced he knows how to spot a fixed match.

SARFRAZ NAWAZ: And one could see Inzamam batting so slow and then in bowling if you see, the changes Inzamam-ul-Haq made were pathetic. And even the tail-enders scored 57 runs off the last 5 overs. They wanted to give away runs so they could score runs and the bowlers were not used properly, and one could see, still where they have played under par and the match appears to be fixed and it was, I think, 100% a fixed match.

GEOFF LAWSON: I suppose Sarfraz is entitled to his opinion as everybody else is.

Geoff Lawson sees nothing sinister in Pakistan's poor performance.

GEOFF LAWSON: That's the game, you know. People aren't perfect. If people were crowd, media, commentators, ex-players expect the team to be perfect, they have got very unreal expectations.

In fact Justice Qayyum's shares Sarfraz Nawaz's suspicions that says that proving a match is fixed is extremely difficult.

REPORTER: Did you see the West Indies match?

JUSTICE MALIK MUHHAMED QAYYUM: Yes, I did see and to me it was quite apparent that the Pakistan team was not trying to win. Especially towards the end of the West Indies innings, lots of runs were given away. But it is very, you know, very difficult to find direct evidence. If somebody has to commit a crime or to fix the match or to bribe somebody it won’t be done in the open. And the minimum thing which people do is that there should be no witnesses.

Senator Anwar Baig takes his cricket so seriously, he has decided to protest over what he sees as a lack of accountability in the national cricket board.

SENATOR ANWAR BAIG: It's pathetic. The people of this country are absolutely in a state of shock after this debacle of Pakistan cricket at the World Cup in the West Indies.

Senator Baig says the Pakistan Cricket Board has failed to clean up the problems in the game.

SENATOR ANWAR BAIG: If you go and see Justice Qayyum's report, he has given ways and means to check this match fixing business and to see the assets of these players on an annual basis. But unfortunately the Pakistan Cricket Board has paid no heed to the recommendations given by Justice Qayyum.

In fact in April, the head of the cricket board, Dr Nasim Ashraf and captain Inzamum – ul – Haq were called to appear before a special parliamentary committee and explain the team's miserable performance in the World Cup.

SENATOR ANWAR BAIG: The gentleman Dr Nasim Ashraf, unfortunately he is not a Pakistani national, he is an American national, and he just happens to be a personal friend of Mr Mushareff. It is on that basis he has been appointed, he has no love for Pakistan cricket, he is a doctor by profession, he is a kidney specialist.

Cricket board boss Dr Ashraf turned down Dateline's request for an interview.

IMRAN KHAN, FORMER PAKISTAN CAPTAIN: Here I have plenty of land to build a big house.

Legendary cricketer Imran Khan captained the World Cup team when it won the World Cup for the first and only time in 1992. The so-called Lion of Lahore is now an opposition politician and he also blames Pakistan's cricket woes on the current administration.

IMRAN KHAN: You have a chairman of the cricket board whose own legitimacy is he happens to be a friend or a choice of the President of the country. Now the President of the country might or might not know anything about cricket so he then chooses the head of the cricket board who becomes the chairman and the chairman then becomes a mini dictator.

Khan says that Pakistan's cricketers are accused of match fixing all too often.

IMRAN KHAN: Once there are doubts about, you know, a cricket match or once there are rumours about match fixing, whenever a team loses a match, particularly in Pakistan, we have had this past 10 years, there are rumours about match fixing come out.

Across the road from Lahore's Gaddafi stadium lies the Pakistan cricket academy where loyal fans stand for hours to catch a glimpse of their favourite players. It will soon be home to Geoff Lawson, who says his first task is to get his team to forget the past.

GEOFF LAWSON: We are not going to worry about what the crowd think or what the press think or what the former players think. Unless they have something constructive to say. That will be part of the ongoing process we put in place to make sure the players don't feel those sort of pressures.

On the top floor of the cricket academy lies the trophy room. These are the crown jewels of Pakistani cricket, evidence of past glory untainted by allegations of match fixing. But if Lahore is considered the spiritual home of Pakistani cricket, then the port city of Karachi is the centre of the game's dark side.

This city is the Pakistani hub for several criminal gambling syndicates, part of a network operating across the subcontinent from Bombay to Dubai and despite the fact that in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan gambling is illegal, Pakistani bookmakers have found a devotion to the game combined with a passion for betting provides for a most lucrative trade.

MUHAMMED AYYAZ SALEEM, ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT OF POLICE: This is a record, you can see that it is the record between the match of England versus Ireland.

Muhammad Ayyaz Saleem is an assistant Superintendent of police of Karachi. He wanted to show me the evidence he collected on a raid in a bookies den just after the end of this year's World Cup.

MUHAMMED AYYAZ SALEEM: The money, these are the names of the betters. So these are their clients, the ir names. There is the money involved.

REPORTER: These are all World Cup matches, aren't they?

MUHAMMED AYYAZ SALEEM: These are related to the World Cup matchs.

Saleem has tape recordings of conversations between the bookies and their clients, all part of a ongoing investigation currently before the courts. But the assistant Superintendent says the toughest part of his job is fending off crooked cops in his own department.

MUHAMMED AYYAZ SALEEM: First we have to fight against those persons and the Government who are hand in glove with these people. I fight with those elements in my own department. First we have to do that. After that, concurrently you fight against the gamblers. Actually, you have to fight on two fronts, the first front and the most difficult, most dangerous front is within your own department.

Pakistan's new coach is quick to point out that there is a long association between gambling and cricket.

GEOFF LAWSON: You know, betting in cricket has gone back to the 18th century. The game was going to be banned in England in the 18th century because of gambling, it is nothing new. Now there are processes in place to deal with these things and for every crisis that comes up, there is generally an answer to solving that and the human condition always allows people to be looking for the next best way to make a quid and we can't do anything about that.

ARIF ALI KHAN ABBASI, FORMER HEAD, PAKISTANI CRICKET BOARD: It's an economic forse that can not be controlled by administration measures. Nothing can control an economic force, you can minimize it.

Arif Ali Khan Abbasi is the former boss of Pakistan's cricket board. He ran the game in Pakistan during the 1990s at the height of match fixing allegations against players.

ARIF ALI KHAN ABBASI: Like I said, it's an economic force. To turn a blind eye is stupid but to minimise it is not stupid. To say that you will eliminate it, is a fairytale. Nobody can.

Abbasi says he knows how to deal with dirty cricketers, preferably behind closed doors.

REPORTER: What you are saying it should have been handled internally?

ARIF ALI KHAN ABBASI: We have done that. I refuse to name the players. One or two players came and suggested to us that they can't keep it to themselves any more but they had been involved.

REPORTER: So you had confessions to you about fixing?

ARIF ALI KHAN ABBASI: One player in particular, that's it. And that he apologised profusely, but I remember informing the people concerned that in the light of this, don't select him, finished. That's the best way to do it.

REPORTER: What would you do if you come across any sort of evidence of fixing or corruption in cricket in Pakistan?

GEOFF LAWSON: Whether I was a coach or a player, whatever I was, or a journalist or commentator, if you hear or see of issues of match fixing, you report them straightaway to the authorities. That is certainly the case and I have a contractual obligation to do that anyway. I would have a moral obligation to deal with that and I wouldn't put up with that sort of thing in any shape or form.

The only world wide body tasked with tackling corruption in cricket is the International Cricket Council, the ICC.

JUSTICE MALIK MUHHAMED QAYYUM: What has ICC done ever since its inception? I think virtually nothing. The least they could have done was to discuss the report with me after I had given my report. Nobody bothered to contact me.

Justice Qayyum says the ICC is weak-willed when it comes to tackling crooked cricketers.

JUSTICE MALIK MUHHAMED QAYYUM: The ICC to say the least, is spineless. So you need a body that has a spine in it, a body willing to go by principle, a body which does not look on the other side when it knows something is happening, and that probably is the only solution worldwide.

Geoff Lawson clearly wants to pass on his great love for cricket and even though some of his friends believe that his new job in Pakistan is a poisoned chalice, Lawson is confident that he will prove them all wrong.

GEOFF LAWSON: A lot of my friends have said to me, well congratulations on your job but you are mad. I am getting sick of it because I am not mad. I am looking forward to it with a great deal of enthusiasm and dealing with the people, not only the players but also the fans and whole interaction. If we do this thing properly, it will be one of the best times of my life. I am looking at it from that point of view. It's a great challenge. I am going to enjoy every minute of it, no matter which way it goes, no matter how people react, I will enjoy every moment of this.

Feature Report: It’s not cricket

Reporter/Camera
NICK LAZAREDES

Editor
DAVID POTTS
ROWAN TUCKER-EVANS

Local support/ researcher
IRSHAD RAO

Original music composed by
VICKI HANSEN