Match fixing and cricket

Over a decade ago the match fixing scandal in cricket almost destroyed the game. A lot of prominent cricketers like Azharuddin, Jadeja, Manoj prabhakar, Salim malik, Hansie Cronje to name a few saw an abrupt end to their careers. Since then slowly the scar seemed to have faded and the game of cricket seemed to have come out of its worst ever crisis. The ICC formed an anti corruption unit and these retired law enforcement officials appointed by the ICC seemed to keep a close watch on all matches and players, and have things under control.

Yet every now and again murmurs were being heard and fingers were being pointed mostly at the Pakistan players and at times others like the West Indians. Various investigations have being held now and then, the most serious being the one after the death of Bob woolmer, when a section of the world press said that he was done away with since he knew too much. The Pakistani board more than once conducted investigations of their own, suspended many a player , only to bring them back a few months later citing lack of evidence or misunderstanding or language problems.

But over the past week the scandal seems to have returned with a vengeance like the plague of ancient times. Nobody now knows where all this will lead to. To cricket lovers like me the whole thing brings a very bad taste in the mouth. I don’t know which one of the matches that I have passionately watched over the years sometime losing sleep, sometimes missing work, sometimes missing holidays are real and which ones are fixed. If all the matches that I have watched have been fixed then I would be better off switching to watching WWF wrestling on TV from now on. It also builds a rage within that me and I am sure with all the other cricket lovers across the world that we have been taken for a royal ride by these fake stars, who in my opinion will not hesitate to sell their own mothers for a few additional pennies.

Look at the wages and the endorsements that each one of them are getting these days, look at the life style of these cricketers in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and West indies where the majority of the population lives below poverty line.They live in lavish bungalows, drive about in the latest cars and yet they have to sell their own souls for a few additional bucks. In my rage sometimes, I seem to blame the whole lot of players, but deep within I would still like to believe that the Gavaskars, Tendulakars and Dravids whom I have worshipped all these years are beyond this. But again if there are one or two worms in a team of 11, it will reflect on the entire team and taint the country.

The Aussies today are sympathizing with some of these crooks and passing statements like their culture has driven them to do it. Is it not shameful to come upon such comments? A country that came into existence just around 200 years ago, pointing at our culture which began with the Indus valley civilization. We who first civilized the world now have to listen to lectures on culture and upbringing from these upstarts and descendants of re settled convicts.

I fully endorse the summons issued by the Lahore High court and filing cases of treason against these tainted players. Their act is nothing less than treason and should be dealt with severely. However, going by previous instances one does not see anything positive coming out of it. Some of the ministers in Pakistan have already begun working on conspiracy theories to ward of public opinion and anger. This as always is the most convenient excuse. Whenever there is an internal problem, blame it on external conspiracies and hide the dirt under the carpet. Unfortunately for Pakistan the dirt has become a mound and may soon grow into a mountain. Don’t be surprised if you see these players suspended for a few months and then brought back next year for the world cup to play more havoc in the cricketing world. In a land of adjustments and percentages anything can happen. Not so long ago the current president himself had a nickname of Mr. 10 percent.