English cricketer pleads guilty to corruption

An English county cricketer pleaded guilty on Thursday to a corruption charge linked to his bowling in a 40-over one-day game.

Mervyn Westfield, 23, who played for Essex, admitted accepting or obtaining a corrupt payment to bowl in a way that would allow the scoring of runs, during a hearing at the Old Bailey in London.

The court heard he had agreed to bowl his first over in a way that would let Durham score a set number of runs in a game in September 2009.

Westfield will be sentenced on February 10.

Huge sums are bet on cricket matches, especially in India, because of the way results can be manipulated.

Pakistan players Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer were jailed in Britain last year for their role in a spot-fixing scandal in a Test match against England.