The former president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India Raj Singh Dungarpur says he still does not believe match-fixing can take place in a team game.

Asked specifically how widespread is the scourge of match-fixing, Dungarpur told Asia Today programme of the 'BBC World' last night, "betting is widespread. Match-fixing I don't know. I still don't believe match-fixing can take place in a team game."

Asked how confident he was that match-fixing was not continuing in India today, Dungarpur said "I am very confident it doesn't exist anymore, if at all it had existed before."

Dungarpur said he did not think most boards, except for India, went into a full investigation with CBI.

"Everybody has tried to put it under the carpet. I think the first instance is as far back as 1981 when Dennis Lille and Rodney Marsh put money at 100 to one or 150 to one, huge odds, and finally ended up on the losing side. I think if that was investigated, perhaps the future would have been much brighter," he said.

When pointed out that Condon report says match-fixing was still on, Dungarpur said he did not believe it. "If anybody was even remotely connected with it they would run 100 miles away from it now," he said.

Asked why it was so hard to clamp down on the bookmakers, Dungarpur said "because the whole operation is illegal. And I think it's impossible to put your finger on it and I think at a certain point the law authorities themselves are involved in it or it couldn't exist the way it does."

© PTI