It has been announced that former Pakistan Internationals Salman Butt and Mohammed Asif have been selected to play for Pakistan. I was at the Test Match at Lords when they were caught bowling no-balls for cash I had paid good money for the ticket to that day’s play in the belief that it would be played between two teams of players who had no other agenda other than to produce the best performance for their respective countries.

It made me both angry and sad that these cheats had taken money to potentially alter the course of the game. Their argument that two or three no-balls would not affect the outcome of the match is a nonsense. If the batsmen facing these planned no-balls had played rash shots, then possibly Pakistan’s only chance of dismissing them would have been wasted and the course of that innings and possibly the match would have been changed.

In the past 20 years I have paid to watch over 100 international cricket matches - two thirds of those overseas. How can I tell if any of those were subject to the same player interference and were, therefore, NOT genuine contests?

National cricket boards and the ICC have an obligation to represent the paying public which applies even if the players concerned happen to be good ones! I think it is important that anyone caught changing the natural course of a game (for that is exactly what bowling no-balls for money constitutes) and thereby cheating all those paying either at the turnstiles or through their television subscriptions to watch is banned from participating at the highest level ever again. Hopefully this will provide a suitable deterrent to anyone else tempted to take money in exchange for doing anything other than producing their best performance for their country.

If you agree, please sign this petition so that the Pakistan Cricket Board, the ICC and the ECB – Pakistan visit the UK this summer - can appreciate how we feel.