On 22 September 1817 William Lambert — by then the leading professional cricketer in England — appeared before the MCC committee at the Mary-Le-Bone Tavern and admitted accepting money to underperform in a single-wicket match. The committee voted his ban the following morning. Lambert never played in major cricket again. His confession is the founding document of cricket's anti-corruption record.
Match-fixing through side-betting had been an open suspicion through the 1810s. Lambert was the first leading player to be formally caught.
Suspicions had been circulating through the 1817 season that Lambert had thrown a single-wicket fixture in July. Beauclerk pushed for an inquiry. On 22 September Lambert appeared before the committee. According to Bentley's later account, Lambert admitted accepting £20 to score below 30 in his first innings and was visibly contrite. The committee — chaired by Beauclerk — voted unanimous expulsion the following day. Lambert returned to Burstow and never played at Lord's again.
Jul 1817
Suspect single-wicket match
Aug-Sep 1817
MCC investigation
22 Sep 1817
Lambert confesses to committee
23 Sep 1817
Lifetime ban imposed
“I never deserved the kindness of the gentlemen at the Marylebone Club, and I am justly punished.”
Lambert lived another forty years at Burstow, occasionally umpiring village matches. He died in 1851 still under his MCC ban.
The first documented match-fixing confession in major cricket and the start of the game's anti-corruption record.
The 1817 ban is the earliest formal cricket anti-corruption case. Modern cricket integrity codes descend, in lineage, from this committee meeting.
Pakistan vs Australia
1994-10-11
On the eve of the Karachi Test in October 1994, Pakistan captain Salim Malik allegedly approached Shane Warne, Mark Waugh and Tim May with bribes of around US$200,000 each to underperform. Australia lost the Test by one wicket. Malik denied everything for years; Justice Qayyum's 2000 report found him guilty and banned him for life.
Australia
1998-12-08
On December 8, 1998, the Australian Cricket Board revealed that Mark Waugh and Shane Warne had been fined in 1995 for accepting cash from an Indian bookmaker named 'John' (later identified as Mukesh Gupta) in exchange for pitch and weather information. The ACB had concealed the fines for three years. The cover-up became a bigger scandal than the original incident.
South Africa vs India
2000-04-07
On April 7, 2000, the Delhi police Crime Branch announced they had recordings of South African captain Hansie Cronje discussing match-fixing arrangements with London-based Indian bookmaker Sanjeev Chawla. The wiretap had been placed for an extortion case unrelated to cricket. A police officer's son recognised Cronje's voice on a tape brought home — and the biggest scandal in cricket history began.