The England and Wales Cricket Board chairman spoke out after the King Commission, which investigated former captain Hansie Cronje, suggested the measures to try and weed out remaining offenders in the long-running corruption inquiry.

MacLaurin added he "would resist to the 'nth' degree" attempts to implement the controversial plan in England.

The commission's second interim report outlined the case for extra scrutiny on players, stating "it is unfortunately necessary for players' telephone calls and also e-mails to be monitored.

"A somewhat drastic proposal is that players should contractually authorise the undergoing of a polygraph test which would be undertaken either at random or when there are grounds for suspicion present."

MacLaurin insisted that while much needed to be done to restore credibility within the game, there was still trust between players and administrators.

Honour and integrity

"We do have a problem in the game and I think people are working very hard to eradicate it.

"But I would like to think there was a certain trust between the administrators and the players. I'm appalled really that we're descending into something like that.

"Cricket for me is not like that. Cricket is a game that you trust people implicitly; it's a great game of great honour and great integrity.

"There are a few people who have transgressed. But in the whole scheme of things I do think there is trust and honour in the game of cricket and I would not go for lie detectors and anything like that.

"That would be very sad."