WHAT in heaven's name is happening in the world of cricket? This gentleman's game, amusement of rajas, beloved distraction for millions, has suddenly acquired a sinister air.

Pakistani cricket heroes are behind bars in a UK prison, convicted of accepting bribes to under-perform. Paul Condon, founding head of the International Cricket Council's Anti-Corruption and Security Unit, has claimed that match-fixing involving virtually all the teams has been rampant for over two decades.

Even former cricketers are stepping forward with sensational allegations from the past. As England ex-captain Mike Brearley recently noted, “everything is suspect”.

In fact, to the discerning cricket fan — and there are many in Pakistan — things have been suspect for a long time. Murmurs of cricket corruption first emerged in the 1990s. Pakistani, Indian, Australian and South African cricketers were named. Inquiries were held and commissions convened. Yet nothing was proven.

Then came the game-changing moment in 2000, as South African captain Hansie Cronje publicly confessed to dishonesty. With this shattering development, cricket lost all pretence of innocence.

Privately, the global cricket community — cricketers, officials and many fans — has been deeply suspicious of cricket results ever since that moment. It is impossible to say how big the problem of fixed outcomes has been, because you can't tell just by watching.

Cricket is a sport in which unexpected events happen all the time; indeed, this is the very core of its charm. During investigations, when video footage of suspicious matches is replayed, there is no agreement even among experienced Test cricketers whether an event was contrived or authentic.

As a result, a great deal of the chatter regarding cricket corruption has been guesswork and innuendo. Yet where there's smoke, there's fire, and with the conviction of Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir, corruption in international cricket is now a fact established in a court of law.

This is triggering a paradigm shift in the way we view this game. It is also encouraging individuals like Paul Condon to speak up and, more importantly, be taken seriously.

It is natural to ask, why did the ICC not raise such a hue and cry earlier? The answer is that despite their best efforts and suspicions, they were never able to marshal any proof. With the recent spot-fixing convictions, the cat is out of the bag, and the general mood is now more receptive.

Credible whistleblowers — former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif is a prime example — have spoken out against cricket corruption before, but the allegations never went very far. This is because the standards for establishing corruption are very high.

In our own society, we see glaring examples of brazen corruption in nearly every sphere for which no one ever gets caught. Even for an open-and-shut matter like the spot-fixing fiasco involving Butt, Asif and Amir, the jury was not unanimous. This gives some idea of the arduous challenge facing anti-corruption efforts in cricket.

One of the best weapons in this fight is deterrence. While the imprisonment of our three cricketers is a tragic waste, it also provides crucial discouragement to would-be fixers. In this sense, it is fortuitous that Pakistan's corrupt cricketers fell under the investigative net of the UK police.

Unknown to the perpetrators, their actions had violated a gambling law in the UK that ultimately resulted in prison terms. The ICC alone could not have applied any punishment worse than a lengthy ban, which is unpleasant, but not nearly as unpleasant as going to jail.

Lessons from the spot-fixing saga are now pointing the way forward. Cricket's anti-corruption net must be widened to include not just twisted players, but also the shady gamblers and punters who ensnare them in rigged betting.

The ICC's code of conduct only applies to players and officials, but cricket needs the protection of international law that traverses national boundaries and from which there can be no escape for anyone.

This requires stepping up the fight substantially — liaison with Interpol, coordination with local law-enforcement in the Test-playing countries, careful monitoring of statistical trends, use of devious methods such as infiltration and entrapment — but it is absolutely vital.

Many people are now wondering whether international cricket is just staged theatre like professional wrestling. Such cynicism is to be expected, but we must resist falling into this mental trap. Recent developments have created a heightened state of alertness that has almost certainly forced a pause in illegal activities.

Of course, we have to remain extremely vigilant, because this bubble will not last long. The war for cricket's future will need significant ongoing victories to keep the sport clean and secure.

Match-fixing and spot-fixing arouse such intense revulsion because they mock the sacred covenant between spectator and sportsman. At the heart of this covenant is the sportsman's honesty of effort, and we feel badly deceived when we discover it to be false. On the other hand, this moral calculus is a double-edged sword, because if you start questioning everything, it will destroy your pleasure of the game.

Cricket's mindset must therefore shift from hand-wringing and finger-pointing to a more settled approach. While the ICC and its member boards use the momentum of recent events to pursue a comprehensive, relentless and merciless strategy against the crooks, the rest of us should return to celebrating cricket for the adorable pastime that it is.

We can't let the bad guys spoil it for us.

The writer is a sports columnist.