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Batting bucks
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BY MICHAEL CASEY
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September 03, 2010 |
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Only a few years after the ICC vowed to crack down on corruption in the wake of the Hansie Cronje scandal, the sport’s governing body is under fire amid allegations Pakistan players were involved in “spot-fixing” in a test against England.”
A tabloid newspaper sting uncovered an illicit scheme that the International Cricket Council’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit failed to detect — despite the fact the players were on the ICC radar for several months.
Pakistan parliamentarian Iqbal Mohammed Ali is wondering where that unit was during the spot-fixing, which is the betting on individual events in a match and can involve huge sums of money.
“What were the security officials of ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit doing in England?” Ali asked. “If we believe that the Majeed brothers were in touch with Pakistan players, how was it possible that it didn’t come to the notice of ACSU officials?”
Ban player, not nationFormer Australian cricket captain Mark Taylor said suspending Pakistan from international cricket over alleged match fixing would be “too harsh.” Taylor said it would be detrimental to cricket if an entire nation was banned because of the conduct of individuals. “I don’t agree with that, I think it’s too harsh a penalty for one nation,” Taylor said. “If they have one person, two people, three people involved in match-fixing or fixing certain deliveries ... to throw the whole nation? No, I’m not for that.” Taylor said banning Pakistan would not serve to lift the stain of match fixing from cricket. “You’re always going to ask those questions,” he said. “(If) you throw them out, when they come back you’re still going to ask those questions. “I think all you can do is penalise the individuals and embark on an education process and hopefully stop people from doing this sort of thing, but I think throwing the nation out of world cricket I don’t think is right.” Taylor said combatting match fixing was a major challenge, not just in cricket. “(Match-fixing) is probably there in all sports,” he said. “You can not monitor people 24/7,” he said. “It comes down to education and it comes down at the end of the day saying ‘if you get involved in it, the repercussions are going to be damning.’” Associated Press
“This says the corruptors have never gone away,” a source close to the ICC, who refused to be identified as he wasn’t authorised to speak on the record, said.
“There would be a pleasant utopian view that after the ACSU was set up, then everything that had gone wrong previously was no longer an issue,” he said. “Clearly that is not the case. The fact of the matter is that the betting industry is a massive one and the stakes have got higher and higher as the years have gone on, so things are just as serious as before, if not more so.”
In the latest scandal, a British tabloid alleged that two of Pakistan’s players deliberately bowled no-balls against England last week in exchange for money. In similar cases, individuals in illegal betting hubs would then have that information passed on to them so exchange for information on pitch and weather conditions during a tour to Sri Lanka. Players from South Africa, India and Pakistan were banned from international cricket in the game’s more recent match-fixing scandals.
The biggest of those scandals involved Cronje, the former South Africa captain who admitted in 2000 to receiving $100,000 to manipulate matches. South Africa slapped a life ban on Cronje, who died in 2002 in a plane crash, and the scandal caused the ICC to set up its anti-corruption unit.
ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat called match-fixing in cricket “sad and disappointing” but denied that his organisation has allowed the sport to be corrupted and said players have to help in preventing more cases.
“We have identified corrupt individuals and advised players to stay away from them,” Lorgat said in South Africa. “We need cooperation from the players. They must listen to us and also have discipline.” Lorgat, also a South African, said the ICC has not allowed corruption to increase by failing to act.
“We have a lot of measures in place,” Lorgat said.
Any player found guilty of colluding with bookmakers to manipulate the result could be banned for life.
But tackling the larger problem of gambling in cricket — illegal in much of South Asia — will likely take more money and greater political will. Pakistan, especially, has repeatedly failed to take action, even though there have been clear signs that some of its players were involved in illicit activities.
After Australia routed Pakistan in Sydney in January, suspicions were raised that at least one of the matches on the visitors’ disastrous tour in which it lost all three tests, all five ODIs and the sole Twenty20 game.
Seven Pakistan cricketers were fined or suspended after the Australia tour due to infighting and poor performance. However, the ban didn’t last long and the Pakistan Cricket Board also halved the players’ fines.
In India, several prominent players caught up in match-fixing still have a role in the sport. Manoj Prabhakar served a five-year ban before returning as a coach for the Delhi Ranji Trophy team, while Ajay Jadeja, who was banned for five years, is a cricket expert on the NDTV news channel and also coaches in domestic cricket.
Every major city in India and Pakistan has betting syndicates, and estimates have put the money generated in India at $1 billion for big matches.
Associated Press
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