The England and Wales Cricket Board yesterday called on the sport's new anti-corruption chief to get to the bottom of the latest series of damaging allegations to hit the game.

England's Alec Stewart and eight other former Test captains have been named in a report by India's Central Bureau of Investigation into 'match-fixing and related malpractice'.

The 162-page report alleges Indian bookmaker Mukesh Kumar Gupta told investigators he had paid Stewart £5,000 for information on pitch, weather conditions and team composition after being introduced to the former England captain by India all-rounder Manoj Prabhakar in 1993.

Stewart categorically denies the allegations or, indeed, ''ever knowingly having met Mr Gupta''.

But the ECB want former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Condon to carry out an investigation into the claims.

''The ECB have proposed that Sir Paul Condon, head of the ICC's anti-corruption unit, be asked on behalf of all the cricket boards who have had players named in the Indian government report to investigate those claims further and to see if there is any evidence to corroborate any of them.

''In that event the ECB will fully cooperate with Sir Paul Condon's investigations and will await further developments.

''In the meantime, Alec Stewart will not be suspended from playing cricket for England and will remain with the team in Pakistan.''

Gupta's allegations are connected to an England tour of India and Sri Lanka, from January to March 1993, and the report, published yesterday, detailed his claims.

It reads: ''In 1993, the England team visited India, and MK Gupta requested Manoj Prabhakar to introduce him to Alec Stewart.

''He paid a sum of £5,000 to Alec Stewart who agreed to give MK information about weather, wicket, team composition etc whenever the English team played.

''Stewart refused to fix any matches for him.

''Manoj Prabhakar was also paid some money for arranging this meeting with Alec Stewart.''

Stewart himself, on tour with England in Pakistan but not playing in the current four-day match against the Patron's XI in Rawalpindi, moved quickly to distance himself from the allegations.

An ECB statement read: ''Alec Stewart has fully cooperated with the ECB over this matter, and has categorically denied to Lord MacLaurin, chairman of the ECB, and Tim Lamb, chief executive, that he has ever taken money from Mr Gupta or anyone else, for providing information related to a cricket match.

''In fact, he denies ever knowingly having met Mr Gupta.''

Unlike other famous names in the report, such as West Indies star Brian Lara or Sri Lankan duo Arjuna Ranatunga and Aravinda de Silva, there is no suggestion that Stewart was ever paid for affecting the outcome of a match.

Stewart's father Micky, 68, the former England coach and batsman, said: ''It's been a very unpleasant thing for my wife and the family to hear and read, and it's all speculation.

''It is totally contrary to what he stands for and how he is looked on in the game, or by anybody.''

Other foreign players named include Hansie Cronje (South Africa), Martin Crowe (New Zealand) and Asif Iqbal and Salim Malik (Pakistan). Australia's Mark Waugh and former Indian physiotherapist Ali Irani were also named.

Cronje has been banned for life from the game after admitting his involvement with bookmakers, but Ranatunga insisted he has never had any dealings with them while Crowe claimed he had been tricked after Gupta posed as a journalist.

Crowe, who retired in 1995, said he expected to be cleared of any wrong-doing because he had been given the impression he was being paid to write newspaper columns.

He said: ''I wasn't actually paid by the bookmaker. But it was obviously an organised scam to collect information, and once I realised what was going on I knocked it on the head.''

Gupta alleged Ranatunga and de Silva, who both attended a meeting of the Sri Lankan cricket board yesterday, helped fix an Indian victory over Sri Lanka in a 1994 Test played at Lucknow.

Ranatunga insisted: ''I have had no dealings whatsoever with any bookmaker, or been offered, or accepted any bribe from any bookmaker or any other person at any time.''

One of the most shocking allegations is levelled against former Windies skipper Lara. Gupta told the CBI he was introduced to Lara by Prabhakar during the tour of India in 1994.

The report stated: ''According to MK Gupta, he paid a sum of 40,000 dollars to Lara to under-perform in two one-dayers during the tour.''

The CBI, India's equivalent of the FBI, are not understood to have any hard evidence against anybody named in their report except five Indian Test players.

Only recently MacLaurin demanded anyone under suspicion should be immediately suspended from playing until they are proved to be innocent.

Options open to the game's governors in dealing with those found guilty of providing information for financial reward include a five-year ban