PERTH, NOVEMBER 4: West Indies cricket captain Jimmy Adams on Saturday questioned whether the corruption which had blackened the game's image, could ever completely be removed. ``Will the root problem ever be solved ?'' he asked as his side arrived here at the start of their Australian tour, embracing a five-Test series and a triangular one-day contest also involving Zimbabwe.``Will you ever get to a point where people (cricketers) will never be aproached (by bookies) ? How do you solve that ? You will always have gambling. And that is the root problem. How do you remove that ?"Adams was commenting on the explosive Indian report issued this week claiming West Indies star batsman Brian Lara was among a group of international stars to have been paid money by an Indian bookmaker to fix matches or provide information.Lara, who is alleged to have taken 40,000 US dollars tounder-perform, refused to talk to the media here after the side's arrival.Team manager Ricky Skerritt said Lara had placed the matter in the hands of his lawyer in England who had told him not to add anything to statement issued there categorically denying he had taken money to under-perform in two games in 1994.``Brian has been keeping his chin up in the circumstances,'' Adams said. ``I don't think anybody enjoys going through what he is going through, but he is in a pretty pleasant mood.''``We have a tightly knit unit, and Brian gets on well with the other players.''Skerritt said: ``Brian is obviously very concerned about this, because he is totally unaware of any of this activity, and has denied having ever being involved in any such activity.``So we are focusing on the cricket, trying to give Brian as much support as we can, but we are going to try to do everything we cannot to distract us from why we are here.''Skerritt said: ``As the tour goes on as Brian makes his hundreds you will have access to Brian the cricketer.``If we feel it is necessary for Brian to speak to you (journalists) at the right time and if his lawyers want him to then he will.``But at this point, we in the Caribbean believe people are innocent until proved guilty.``This conference is not about Brian it is about the West Indies tour of Australia.''Coach Roger Harper said that during his time as a player there were stories going around about what might be happening in relation to money changing hands.``There were stories, but they were just rumours and stories. You heard things being said, but nothing to say that anything was really happening,'' he said.``I had no reason to doubt or question any result or any performance on the field.''Harper said the team members would let Lara know they were behind him, because he had categorically denied all the allegations, and the players wanted him to know they would support him all the way.``If Brian tells me he is not involved, that is good enough for me,'' Harper said. ``I have every reason to trust him and believe what he says.''WICB won't take actionBRIDGETOWN: The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) does not plan to take any action in response to an Indian government report that accuses former captain Brian Lara of match-fixing, Board of Control for Cricket in India president Pat Rosseau said.``We do not propose to take any action on this report and will leave it to the International Cricket Council's anti-corruption unit to investigate the matter,'' Rousseau said in a statement on Saturday.
