Fixing the fixers

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

The world of cricket will be pondering the implications of the bans imposed on three of our cricketers last Saturday. These are the first bans to be imposed by the International Cricket Council, and they will not be the last. They were imposed as the result of a classic tabloid newspaper ‘sting’, with the News of the World, a popular British Sunday paper, filming the agent who set up the ’fix’ in the process of doing so. Once the cat was out of the bag matters developed their own momentum. Our entire team was tainted and under suspicion and last Friday saw the announcement that the British Crown Prosecution Service had concluded that there was sufficient evidence to, on the balance of probabilities, make a conviction of the same three men likely if the case was tested in court. The men have denied the charges before the ICC and, if they ever get to trial, will presumably plead not guilty in a British court. A hearing in magistrate’s court has been fixed at 17th March, and the next phase of this saga of disgrace will begin.

Whether the ICC verdict will affect the culture of illegal betting that has infected cricket, is doubtful. What it will have done is put down a marker for others who may be tempted to follow the example of Messrs Butt, Asif and Amir. A marker that clearly indicates that cheating is not acceptable, and the price of cheating is going to be, perhaps, the loss of an entire career. Butt may be able to pick up the pieces later; Amir may survive to fulfil his obvious promise but at 28 Asif may well be finished as a top-level player. Difficult as it may be, it is hard not to see the case against the men was backed up by hard evidence. This was not something born of sly innuendo or rumour, it was grounded in forensic reality, and the men’s denial in the face of the evidence said little for their characters. It would have been better for them and for the sport of cricket if they had come clean with the ICC, even at risk of exposing others. The other uncomfortable reality is that not just cricket, but many other sports across the world are deeply mired in corruption. Horse racing is notorious for its fixing or ‘nobbling’ – doping horses to make them run faster or slower. Football has had its scandals, and the world of Formula 1 motor racing is driving close to the edge of illegality with ‘team orders’ determining the outcome of races. Sport, including cricket, is today big business. Globally, sport is a multi-billion-dollar a year industry and we should not be surprised that it attracts the attention of criminals wishing to subvert the higher principles that most sportsmen and women have at the outset of their careers. Let us hope that for our cricketers a lesson is learned, and for those who manage our cricket at a national level to be considerably more diligent in their duties.