WORLD cricket’s governing body, the ICC, must act swiftly and decisively if the sport is not to become tarnished in the same way the Olympic Games have become.

Whenever an athlete does something extraordinary at a major championships, it is difficult for the finger of suspicion not to fall upon them because of the countless drug cheats that have blighted track and field down the years.

Even if they pass drug tests at the meetings, there are still scores of competitors that have been stripped of medals years after the event because they have used performance-enhancing drugs.

And, in the same way, cricket must avoid becoming a sport of similar standing where doubts are cast on outstanding achievements.

What a crying shame for players like Jonathan Trott and Stuart Broad. They put in world-class performances in the Fourth Test, yet they will feel a sense of injustice that their recordbreaking exploits have been put in the shade.

It is wholly understandable there are calls for anyone proved to have been caught up in spot-fixing and match-fixing to be banned from cricket for life.

Senior players like Mohammad Asif and Salman Butt are role models and should be leading by example. They are old enough and experienced enough to know what is right and wrong.

If proven guilty, the book should be thrown at them.

But one of the saddest sub-plots in this scandal is the fact 18-year-old Mohammed Amir is at the centre of it all. He has lit up the summer with his performances in a mediocre Pakistan team, yet he could be lost from the game forever.

Initially, it seems inconceivable that such a fine talent could disappear from the sport because of the naivity of youth.

But maybe Amir will become the example that will stop players from around the world spending even a split-second with the very people that are trying to bring the game we love down to its knees.

After all, no one player is bigger than the game itself. Just tweet Kevin Pietersen and ask him.