Vettori wants guilty to get life bans

Daniel Vettori, the New Zealand captain, has called for life bans on players found guilty of fixing. His comments came a day after Australian captain Ricky Ponting had said it would be unfair if the entire Pakistan team was punished over the spot-fixing controversy that has dominated cricket headlines over the past two weeks.

Three Pakistan players - Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif - linked to the spot-fixing scandal were suspended by the ICC last week and a fourth, fast bowler Wahab Riaz, will be questioned by Scotland Yard next Tuesday.

"If they are proved, those allegations, then it has to be the harshest possible (punishment) and that's a life ban," Vettori told Radio New Zealand on a day when he again picked up the Player of the Year award at New Zealand Cricket's awards for the 2009-10 season.

New Zealand had pulled off a tight victory over Pakistan in a Test in Dunedin last year - their only win over strong opposition in two-and-a-half years - but Vettori said all matches would come under the scanner due to the latest scandal.

"Whenever incidents like (these) recently have come under the spotlight then people are going to question every single game that Pakistan played in," he said. "The key for cricket is to clean it up as quickly as possible, so that people don't turn up at the game and think there's something going on. Cricket needs to be squeaky clean."

Another close game Pakistan were involved in was the Sydney Test in January, which has also come under suspicion after Australia won from a seemingly hopeless position. Australia have maintained that they had no inkling of any fixing in the game, their coach Tim Nielsen calling the match "some of the hardest Test cricket we've ever played".

After the latest scandal came to light, Ponting called for individual players to be punished and not the entire team. "Let's just start with the people we know about at the moment and make sure they're dealt with in the appropriate manner," Ponting told Fox Sports. "I think to ban a whole team would probably be a bit unfair. The world game doesn't really need that, (and) can't really afford that to happen."