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New Delhi - India's batting great Sachin Tendulkar on Friday called for a "thorough" investigation into Pakistan's spot-fixing scandal, saying the guilty should be punished.
"The ICC (International Cricket Council) should make a thorough probe in the scandal and take appropriate action if the players are found guilty," Tendulkar, 37, told reporters.
"If the allegations are true, they will certainly bring the game into disrepute."
A British tabloid claimed last weekend that a middleman gave undercover reporters exact details of no-balls to be bowled by Pakistani seamers Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif during the Lord's Test against England.
The News of the World said it had paid the middleman, Mazhar Majeed, 150 000 pounds ($230 000) for information on the practice of spot-fixing, which allegedly is widespread in illegal South Asian betting circles.
Majeed, who claimed to be an agent for several Pakistani cricketers, told the newspaper he worked for an "Indian party".
"They pay me for information," Majeed was recorded as saying.
Tendulkar, the world's senior-most active cricketer, who made his debut in 1989, said he had never heard of an instance when an Indian player was contacted by a bookmaker.
"In my 21 years of international cricket, I have never heard of an Indian player being approached by bookies," the star batsman said.
Tendulkar is cricket's leading run-getter in both Test and one-day formats.
He has scored 13,837 runs from 169 Tests with 48 centuries and 17 598 runs in 442 one-day matches with 46 hundreds.
Tendulkar's name did not figure during the match-fixing scandal in 2000 which saw life bans being imposed on three Test captains, Hansie Cronje of South Africa, Mohammad Azharuddin of India and Salim Malik of Pakistan.
In the latest scandald, the ICC has suspended Pakistan Test captain Salman Butt along with Aamer and Asif from playing any further matches until their cases are resolved. All three have protested their innocence.
