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Cricket and match fixing sadly go together like sprinting and steroids or cycling and EPO.

It is the game's cancer and one that refuses to fade away as the life ban for confirmed cheater Lou Vincent shows.

Former New Zealand batsman Vincent might be attempting to become the Dwain Chambers of the sport by owning up to his misdemeanours and helping the authorities clean up the game further, but for him it is too late.

The 35-year-old has been banned for life by the England and Wales cricket board for his part in trying to fix two matches in 2008 and 2011, while playing for Sussex and Lancashire, but there are other games still under investigation.

Of course it is just not cricket, but Vincent is simply the latest in a rather long line of men who have sought to use the game as a way to feather their own nests corruptly.

Most recently and dramatically it was three Pakistani players - Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir - who were not only in cricket's dock, but in the crown court's dock for spot-fixing in a Test match.

Their crime was caught following a newspaper sting in 2010 resulting in time inside for all three, and yet it did not deter Vincent from continuing on his misguided path.

Essex fast bowler Mervyn Westfield also did time after following Pakistan leg-spinner Danish Kaneria's lead in a pro40 match against Durham in 2009.

There is an ongoing investigation into match-fixing in the Indian Premier League where Justice Mukul Mudgal is leading proceedings which are hanging over the newly installed chairman of the ICC, N Srinivasan.

It doesn't take a boffin to realise there is a pattern emerging here.

The Indian sub-continent is the crucible from where many of the problems involving match-fixing occur.

Gambling is illegal but rife. The unregulated industry is worth billions and thanks to cricket's popularity and easily manipulated betting markets it is an obvious target for bookmakers and their chums.

Players are educated to a far more sophisticated level than ever before on the perils of corruption and fixing, but they are human, some are greedy and a few make the ultimate mistake.

The game has faced this issue for well over 30 years, with several inquiries and investigations landing the odd blow for honesty, such as the fall of Hansie Cronje, or the Qayyum Report in which several Pakistan players were called into question in 1998.

And yet it still goes on. Perhaps not as overtly as before, but it is there, lurking.

It is hard to know for sure what is clean and what is dirty, but the vast vast majority of players give their all, all the time.

As Stuart Broad said yesterday: "There's no excuse now around awareness of match-fixing. We sit through the most boring of lectures saying 'watch out for this' or 'watch out for that'.

"There's no excuse for naivety any more so I don't really see why it wouldn't be a flat-out life ban."

But really, what chance has the game got of ridding itself of the problem when the man at the very top is under investigation?