New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori said yesterday any player caught cheating should be banned from cricket for life to protect the game’s integrity.

Vettori’s comments follow the suspension of three Pakistan players – captain Salman Butt and bowlers Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif – for allegedly bowling deliberate no-balls in a Test against England at Lord’s last month.

“If they are proved, those allegations, then it has to be the harshest possible (punishment) and that’s a life ban,” Vettori said.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has suspended Butt, Aamer and Asif pending further investigation after a British newspaper published the allegations of spot-fixing in the Lord’s Test.

The News of the World reported it had paid an agent for several Pakistan players £150,000 for advance knowledge of no-balls in the Test, which could then be bet upon.

New Zealand’s Black Caps notched a dramatic Test win over Pakistan in Dunedin last December but Vettori said the spectre of cheating cast a shadow over all results, even if these were legitimate.

“Whenever incidents like (these) recently have come under the spotlight then people are going to question every single game that Pakistan played in,” Vettori said.

“The key for cricket is to clean it up as quickly as possible.”