Mervyn Westfield should not get a life ban from cricket for his first offence says Nasser Hussain

Westfield, 23, on Thursday pleaded guilty to accepting or obtaining a corrupt payment to bowl in a way that would allow the scoring of runs. Westfield agreed to bowl the first over in a one-day, 40-over match between Durham and Essex in September 2009 to allow the scoring of 12 runs.

He is due to be sentenced for the offence on 10 February, at which point the England and Wales Cricket Board is expected to make a statement on the case and sporting sanctions may follow.

Hussain, himself a former Essex batsman, hopes that Westfield, a 21-year-old at the time he committed the crime, is not given a life ban for a first offence and believes the ECB's best approach would be to draw on his experiences, to deter other players from going down the same path.

He said: "The ECB should use him, take him around to counties, do a video with him. They should use him as an example for future generations of cricketers, that if you do get a call in your room saying: 'Bowl a bad over and we will give you £6,000', this is what happens to you.

"Instead of just parking him away somewhere to be forgotten, try to use the lad to make sure future generations don't make the same mistakes as he has made.

"You can't take your eye off the ball with this. [The news about Westfield] is what the game needs – Mervyn Westfield would have been about 21 when he decided to bowl that over and take that cash.

"You can do that and then two years later down the line these things come back to bite you and haunt you. Mervyn Westfield is the best [example] to show young players and say: 'Is it really worth it?'

"He was a very good cricketer, there were rumours still that if he beat this case some other counties were going to come in for him; he was a real prospect. This will have been in his blood and now cricket has been taken out of his lifestyle through what he did. It's a harsh lesson that he has learned."

England set to win 261, first warm-up game against ICC XI

Strauss dominated the second stand wicket, his 50 67-ball with his 11th four education. But he was also to infer an antenna pay Haq.

Pietersen managed one before you a tumbling catch Rankin in the mid - on of his dockrell Irish party Fine Gael colleagues George, before Trott and Ian Bell new stabilized hunting.

Mohammad Shahzad second 50 of the game had frustrated England this morning.

Stuart broad (three for 22) struck in the fifth review of the day, for his match at the seven wickets route reached when Mohammad Nabi, implemented mid-off from.

But once, Shahzad has seen in the control. He raised his half-century 76-ball with a length of edge of documents for his ninth four in a James Anderson on the 16 tracks of cost.

It was Christ Viljoen, whose game was against 100 after its first 98 rounds before he was exhausted when he was sent again to a single and not in a position, removes a Monty Panesar - the as a fielder substitute for Graeme Swann hit.

Shahzad and a great blow to many in the stand-in Pietersen off the coast of spin, then think long-off - and after Rankin a blow to Steven Finn will be missed Porterfield, its called beaters.

Swann remained on the ground with the oppression in a muscle of the leg, but it was expected that, if bats.

England first for purged Pakistan as they make their way along the long road to redemption

This is partly because some controversial players remain on the fringes, and partly because it is impossible to be sure what the chief motivation of the current regime is: to clean up the sport and make it one of the few walks of life in Pakistan that is not corrupt, or to do enough to meet the International Cricket Councils’s demands, so that Pakistan’s share of the revenue from global tournaments keeps coming in?

The direction from the top will be decisive. And, as a good start, Ijaz Butt is no longer the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, having lived up to his name as the butt of hatred and humour. However, in a country where who you know matters most, even more than elsewhere, there was no chance of the new PCB chairman being selected on merit.

Three months ago Pakistan’s president Asif Zardari appointed Zaka Ashraf, a friend and stalwart of the Pakistan People’s Party. Ashraf was known not for his interest in cricket, but in banking and — according to his Facebook page – the production of sugar molasses to be refined into ethanol and used in petrol.

So far, as the PCB chairman, he has been skilful in his use of sweeteners. Last month he went to Bangladesh and secured the breakthrough that Pakistan’s cricket has sought since March 2009, when the Sri Lankan team were attacked in Lahore while many of the ‘security forces’ stood by. Ashraf persuaded the Bangladesh chairman to announce that his country would tour Pakistan, subject to an inspection.

In return — how’s this for horse-trading? — Ashraf announced he would support Mustafa Kamal, the Bangladesh chairman, to become the next-but-one president of the ICC, thus sealing his nomination. No matter that the progress of Bangladesh cricket under Kamal’s chairmanship appears to be almost zero.

Another key indicator will come with the appointment of Pakistan’s next full-time coach. Mohsin Khan, who scored a double century for Pakistan in the Lord’s Test of 1982, has been doing a fine interim job, especially with an inexperienced batting line-up, and will make a formidable counterpart to Andy Flower in the coming series.

The favourite to be Pakistan’s next coach, however, is Dav Whatmore, the Australian of Sri Lankan origin. A foreign coach would be better for Pakistan’s political image. It would signal that the country is secure.

Until Pakistan cricket is freed from political interference, and no longer constructed on the basis of the country’s president and his wishes, reform can only be temporary.

England first for purged Pakistan as they take the first step on the long road to redemption

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