LAHORE: Danish Kaneria, the Pakistan legspinner, has been named in court as the alleged go-between in the Mervyn Westfield spot-fixing case.

Westfield, 23, is at the High Court in London to find out his sentence after admitting to accepting £6,000 in return for conceding a set number of runs off an over in a Pro40 match against Durham in September 2009.

Westfield was paid despite failing to give up the agreed 12 runs - Durham managed to score just 10 from the over, the first of the bowler's spell, in a game which Essex went on to win.

The court heard that in his initial police interview, Westfield denied accepting money and said no approach had come from Kaneria but that he had been approached to fix. The prosecution then said that Westfield changed his mind in mid-December and decided to plead guilty.

The court was told that the ICC had warned Kaneria in 2008 about connections with a suspicious bookmaker called Arun Bhatia.

When the defence began to outline their mitigations for Westfield they said the player accepted the "devastating effect" his actions had. At one point, however, the judge interrupted the defence to say: "It is difficult to accept his total remorse, shame and regret when the defendant has lied on a number of occasions about his involvement in this matter."

Kaneria was originally arrested in connection with the investigation in 2010 but was released without charge. AGECNIES