In the wake of the current crisis, players from Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Bangladesh have confirmed being approached by bookies. Even the Australian all-rounder Shane Watson has acknowledged as much. Obviously, these are the players who rebuffed the sinister approaches, which is why they have felt secure enough to make these revelations.

While some players turned the bookies down, it remains possible that others did not. It seems unlikely that bookies motivated by greed would back off completely if their initial approaches went unrewarded. More likely, they would try and approach other players, and attempt a more persuasive strategy. Perhaps there are players hitherto unidentified who gave in. They would be sitting tight-lipped right now, dreading the perils of exposure.

There is a saying in medical diagnosis that “absence of evidence is not evidence of absence” — meaning that lack of evidence for something suspicious does not necessarily imply that it does not exist. Corruption is a sneaky, crafty and deeply deceptive activity for which proper evidence is notoriously hard to establish. Just look at the numerous corruption cases associated with some of the world's top politicians, including our own. Hardly any of them ever gets proven. This, unfortunately, is the nature of the corruption beast — proving it beyond reasonable doubt is an extremely demanding exercise.

It is well known that Pakistan's own experience with match-fixing investigations has been somewhat scattered. In 1995, Saleem Malik was accused of trying to bribe two Australian players to throw away a match. That sparked off great hue and cry in the national and international media, leading to the institution of a procedural inquiry, the one-man Qayyum Commission, which produced a fairly damning report in May 2000. This was mere weeks before South African captain Hansie Cronje's landmark testimony before the King Commission in Durban, in which he became the first, and so far the only, cricketer to confess to match-fixing.

Yet where Cronje's admission precipitated an earthquake in South African cricket, in Pakistan the Qayyum Report triggered a cover-up. Saleem Malik was punished with a lifetime ban, but by then he was well past his international best. Paceman Ata-ur-Rahman, who wasn't really a frontline player to begin with, was made a scapegoat and also received a life ban.

Major names, including Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Mushtaq Ahmed and Saeed Anwar, were let off with fines and reprimands. Akram's public stand now is that jealousies between players made them give false and divisive testimony, but Justice Qayyum sees it differently. In the wake of the latest allegations from News of the World, the judge has blamed improper handling of his report as one of the causes of the current fiasco, arguing that Pakistan's latest cricket embarrassment could well have been avoided had his recommendations been fully implemented.

Scandals and scandal-mongering aside, there is still cricket to be played. In the two-match T20 series against England, Pakistan predictably went down with a whimper. Many people have been wondering if these were indeed genuine losses or were they fixed gambling scenarios scripted by bookies? It is hard to imagine that the boys would still be up to mischief, but there is no shortage of people willing to claim otherwise.

A friend of mine supported this claim by correctly predicting the winner and exact margin of victory for both T20 games well ahead of time. Was it a lucky guess, or something more sinister? No one really knows what to believe anymore.

That said, there is no denying that the team did come out fighting in the opening ODI at Durham, a rain-shortened affair that Pakistan lost by 24 runs. Their performance was even better in the second ODI at Headingley, where they went down fighting in the final over. Pakistan had set England a target of 295, but it was a 320-330 pitch, and it was a shame that despite excellent starts by several Pakistani batsmen, none went on to get a really big score. Still, if momentum counts for something, the third ODI at the Oval could well tip in Pakistan's favour — a result that will be known by the time you read this column.

Meanwhile, the betting scandal continues to play havoc with our emotions. Pakistan's cricket traditions and national image are deeply threatened by this firestorm, and buried within that is an even greater challenge to the sport itself. All eyes are now fixed on the ICC and its planned tribunal hearing to investigate the News of the World's allegations against Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir.

Will the investigators be prepared to go wherever the search for the truth takes them? More importantly, given oblique talk of underworld, government and militant connections, will it even be safe for them to do so? We have entered a very treacherous and complex time for cricketers, cricket officials and fans alike, and it is impossible to say what lies ahead.