Azhar got off lightly: Border

Former Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin got off lightly for his role in cricket's match-fixing scandal, Australian icon Allan Border said Thursday.

Border, Test cricket's leading run scorer, said if Azharuddin had committed his crime in another walk of life he would be behind bars.

Azharuddin, 38, was Tuesday banned for life by the Indian cricket board after admitting fixing three one-day internationals.

"If he is guilty, which it seems as though he is, then he is lucky not to be in jail," Border told ABC radio.

"If you did that in the normal walk of life, in a normal business practice then you would find yourself ten years in the clink."

Allan Border

Border, now an national selector, said he had nothing personal against Azharuddin, whom he played against many times during his 156 Test match career.

"I like Mohammad Azharuddin as a fellow and to see him involved is shattering," he said.

"How they (Azharuddin, Ajay Sharma, Ajay Jadeja and Manoj Prabhakar, who were also banned) let themselves get involved in this, I just don't know."

Border said the life ban was not a severe punishment because "at 38 Azhar is finished anyway."

"But just the stigma that will be associated with it is bad enough."

Border said he hoped cricket's match-fixing scandal was now over, but he had his doubts. "It's hard to get to the bottom of it, it's one bloke's word against another," he said.

"It's a real slow, tough process. But you go through these processes and there is a lot of heartbreak involved but hopefully when we come out the other end, we will have regained a lot of public support.

"We need to take strong action and come out the other side as clean as a whistle."

Mail Cricket Editor