When a cameraman scales the tower of St James's Church, overlooking Somerset's County Ground, to take pictures and helicopters are hovering overhead, there has to be something of huge interest going on.

Sadly for cricket, that was the case when I dropped in to pick up my bike on Tuesday. All the attention was on the practising Pakistan team for entirely the wrong reasons.

Inside the ground was like a ghost town, but outside a huge media circus had gathered and reporters and cameramen were scaling the walls to get the best vantage points.

The fact that one got on top of the church was extraordinary and shows the lengths the media will go to these days. Hearing the helicopters whirring above me and looking around the ground, it hit me what a huge story the spot-fixing allegations had become.

Nothing has been proved and I cannot comment on what is alleged to have gone on. But I can talk a bit about the subject of betting in cricket, which has reached mind-boggling proportions. The ICC released a video not long ago detailing the sort of bets that are made. Incredibly, they include wagers on things like how many players will be wearing sunglasses or floppy hats or white sun cream.

The opportunities for corruption are many and varied. Other things more related to the game, such as how many no-balls are bowled or how many times the bails come off in the course of a day's play can also be influenced by players.

Many of the bets are placed behind closed doors, in the criminal underworld. But others are struck with bookmakers around the world.

I was told recently that as much as a million pounds was bet on a TV game Somerset were involved in last year.

Our domestic televised games in England are broadcast worldwide, so the betting public is far greater than you might imagine. Vast amounts of money crosses hands on all sports nowadays, but cricket has proved particularly attractive to the bookmakers.

Once, when I was on tour with England in Zimbabwe, I got a call in my hotel room from an Indian guy wanting to enquire about my bat sponsorship and how long it had left to run.

All the players had been warned that this sort of call can be the first step in bookmakers trying to draw you in on things, so I put the phone down as soon as possible and immediately contacted the England management.

It was a two-minute conversation and I don't know to this day if there was anything sinister in it. We had just been advised that people offering to sponsor bats or even just offering to buy you a drink while on tour had to be treated with extreme caution. That was 10 years ago, but I am sure the same warning is given to the current England team. It's very sad that it is so necessary, but there are some unscrupulous people about and players are in a vulnerable position.

As I said before, nothing has been proved over the allegations affecting Pakistan and we must await the outcome of investigations. But, unfortunately, the timing of the story breaking took much of the gloss of England's 3-1 Test series victory.

I hope in years to come it is the magnificent partnership between Jonathan Trott and Stuart Broad that is remembered from the final Test.

You could tell by the body language of the England players on the final morning that they were not enjoying wrapping up the series as they should have done.

The victory had been irreparably scarred and there were no great celebrations at the end.

On a brighter note, our squad for today's one-day tour match against Pakistan features three of the brightest young prospects at the club.

Lewis Gregory, Craig Meschede and Adam Dibble have all been selected in the squad and their presence augurs really well for the club's future. I have been following their progress closely and feel all three have an excellent chance of forging successful careers.

Lewis has been with England Under-19 and we have received excellent reports about him, which have encouraged us to put him in the first-team pool, so we can get to know him and he can get a taste of what life as a county cricketer is like.

He's a genuine batsman who also bowls seamers. I can see him batting as high as four or five if he gets into the first team and he took a hat-trick in the second XI against Essex last week, so he is no mug with the ball either.

We've also had Craig travelling around with us on occasions recently. He is more of a five or six batsman, who also bowls seamers, and his aggressive style of batting has already been likened to Craig Kieswetter's at the same age.

Adam is progressing nicely as a tall, athletic seam bowler. When I first left Test cricket, I didn't see much future for players who simply ran up at medium pace and hit good lengths, but the more county games I have played the more I believe Somerset need one.

Players like Durham's Mark Davies and David Masters, of Essex, are excellent exponents of the art. Adam just needs to maintain his progress and get as much control of his bowling as possible in the next couple of years to break into the county game.

When you consider that Somerset have other talented youngsters in Calum Haggett and Alex Barrow, there is every reason for optimism about the future.