Targeting one of the best-paid international cricketers in the world to influence the most prestigious series in the game emphasises the growing audacity of illegal bookmakers, whose criminal operations include murder, death threats and entrapment.

The International Cricket Council has revealed it is investigating a report made by the Australian team that one of its players was approached by a suspected bookmaker at their London hotel after the Lord’s Test. Another Australian player was believed to have been approached during the World Twenty20 tournament in England in June.

But any scrutiny is unlikely to discourage illegal bookmakers, who will continue to feed off cricket so long as there is such disparity in pay among the game’s international elite. Australian players earn up to 10 times more than peers from other Test-playing nations.

If the Ashes can be targeted, what chance the new Twenty20 leagues? Already there is widespread innuendo, all unsubstantiated, that matches in the Indian Cricket League were fixed. Some Australian players also have concerns that a high-profile international star was influenced by bookmakers during the first Indian Premier League season.

‘’The team would work out a game plan and he’d go hit balls in the air as soon as he got in, he’d be talking very suspiciously on his mobile phone, a couple of the guys had some real concerns,’’ a high-ranking source said.

‘’People also need to understand that this is not about match-fixing directly influencing a result, it’s about spread-betting. It could be about bowling a wide with the fourth ball of the 16th over, losing a wicket at a certain time in the match. We’re talking hundreds of millions of dollars here.

‘’This is heavy stuff, like the Mafia. There are bookies murdered in India all the time, they make death threats to players who have taken money and then want to pull out.’’

Officials remained tight-lipped on the approach to the Australian player. The facts as relayed to the media are that after being approached in the lobby of the Royal Kensington Garden hotel, the unnamed player immediately told team management, who in turn informed the ICC’s anti-corruption and security unit (ACSU). It’s understood money was not produced during the encounter.

‘’We did everything to the letter of the law,’’ Australian captain Ricky Ponting said.

England captain Andrew Strauss said there had been no approaches made to his team.

An ICC spokesman said: ‘’I can confirm the ACSU has received a report from Australia team management. The anti-corruption and security unit of the ICC has developed and implemented a fairly comprehensive education programme for all international players and every single international player has undergone that education and is aware of his responsibilities to report any suspicious activity that he feels he may have been subject to.

‘’It seems in this case that education has hit home and we have received a report that the ACSU will now investigate.’’

In the past, bookmakers or those who act on their behalf have approached players claiming to be fans and offering cash for no apparent reason but later demanding information or the following of instructions on the field. They threaten to expose the players for taking the money in the first instance if there is resistance.

Players from lesser Test nations are far more susceptible to an illegal bookie’s demands and, with the mixing of global talent in leagues such as the IPL, there is great concern among Australian stars that franchise teammates could be on the take.

Each year at the team camp in Coolum, Queensland, Australian players are addressed by anti-corruption and security unit officials and sign an agreement that they have undergone education on the issue.

Pakistan players recently reported suspicious people lurking around their team hotel in Colombo during a Test series against Sri Lanka last month. They moved to different rooms and the ICC has cleared all players of having contact with bookies.

‘’In India, it is rife,’’ the source said. ‘’This is a massive problem that has its tentacles at all the high levels of the game.’’