Alastair Cook: 'Match-fixers should be banned for life'

England captain Alastair Cook has said that players found guilty of match-fixing should receive lifetime bans from the sport.

The 31-year-old's comments come as he prepares to face Mohammad Amir in a four-Test series with Pakistan, which begins at Lord's on July 14. Amir was jailed for three months and banned from cricket for five years after being found guilty of deliberately bowling no-balls at Lord's in 2010 but could make his return to action if he is selected for the first Test in London next month.

"It's kind of ironic that his first Test match back will probably be here at Lord's," Cook told reporters ahead of England's final Test with Sri Lanka. "He's served his time. He was punished for what he did, and quite rightly so - because we've got to protect the integrity of the game. I have no problem playing against him at all.

"My only one thing is that I think if you get caught match-fixing you should be banned for life. The punishment should be that hard, because we've got to protect the integrity [of the game].

"That's not to say Amir should not come back, because the rules were probably different then. From my point of view the punishment should be harsher, but that's from now on... if I had any say in it."

As well as Amir, who was a teenager at the time, bans were also handed to Mohammad Asif and Salman Butt for conspiring in the plot.