Cricket

DURING THE FIRST TEST AGAINST PAKISTAN my brother poured derision on what was happening -you remember, all those silly dropped catches some of which I, as a disabled person, could have caught. He believed, and has now been proved right to have believed, that if not match fixing then what is known as spot betting was taking place.

To me the Pakistanis were merely having an off- day or two, or three – it happens in cricket as it does in every other sport. Silly me, I wanted to believe that after the summer we had as a footballing nation in South Africa, our cricketers were making up for the summers’ disappointments. Now, the air of corruption is surrounding the great game, and has undermined our national teams true international worth.

I used to watch athletics eagerly, everything from the Grande-pre meets to the European and world championships; and beyond to the crème-de-la-crème - the Olympics. But once again cheating reared its ugly head. This time it was performance enhancing drugs that completed my dissolution with the sport. Today athletics still carries with it the air of suspicion, which is why I have abandoned it.

If people can no longer watch the sport they love because they can no longer trust the result, then it is not worth handing over their hard earned money to sit and watch it (in the case of Test match cricket) for five days. It is a shame because the game of cricket, especially at Test level, does exactly that. It tests over five days the worthiness of batsmen, bowlers and wicket keepers (and yes, even umpires). Unlike any other sport, Test match cricket examines a players level of performancet; and because of its length can redeem a bad performance one day by a great one the next.

I love the game of cricket beyond my love of any other sport including football. But that love is now under threat because certain players can be nobbled by betting syndicates in the Far East. In India and Pakistan where betting is illegal, the market, like in every other sphere of human activity, finds a way. But in the case of cricket, it threatens to undermine and, who knows, ultimately destroy a fine sport.

Justifications are already being made for the current Pakistani team, some of whose players now stand accused. We have been told by at least one Pakistani journalist, that we must remember that the Pakistani players are paid far less than any other international cricketer, as if this provides ample justification for their actions.

We must remember that no Pakistani player has been found guilty; but the Pakistani government are behaving as if they already believe that the News of the World’s disclosure is accurate and that those the paper accuse are indeed guilty.

THE INTERNATIONAL CRICKET COUNCIL (ICC) has had their attention drawn in the past, without action ever being taken, to other such transgressions. Now in the light of the fourth Test at Lords, the ICC has announced that it is going to investigate some 80 other matches involving Pakistan. The number of matches to be investigated relates to the period when matches involving Pakistan had questionable outcomes or contained questionable practices on the field of play.

The ICC has failed the sport they are supposed to represent. The corruption has been allowed to develop through ICC inaction. We are where we are today because of international cricket’s governing body refusing to discipline the games’ corruptors. The ICC has turned a blind eye despite creating an investigating body who in ten years has only brought charges against two players.

Two things now have to happen to restore the lover of the games’ trust. Gambling must be made legal in both India and Pakistan, or world cricket must divide itself between Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, England, the West Indies, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanker: and India and Pakistan who must be left to continually play each other. If the Pakistanis are receiving less in wages than other cricketing professionals, then they must look to their governing body. But do other members of world cricket such as Sri Lanker and Bangladesh also receive more? If so then the Pakistani cricketing authorities must look toward their wage levels for such highly gifted players.

Either way, it is up to the Pakistani cricketing authorities to equalise its payment system with all other countries or see its country embarrassed even further. For instance, a member of the Pakistani Test squad receives only £35,000 per year, while the teams captain receives £150,000 per year.

The sport, if it has to, can survive without India and Pakistan; but it cannot survive if the people who watch the game cannot trust what is happening before their very eyes: and as long as, in particular, the Pakistani players cannot be trusted, then who would want to play them?