PlanetCricket
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- Jan 13, 2010
Article by barmyarmy -
Like all true fans of the sport I suspect that the sickening feelings I had on reading the latest allegations to hit the game were d?j? vu all over again. Did corrupt cricketers go away just because the ICC formed a unit to investigate it?
The alleged scale, and I say alleged advisedly, of this new scandal seems to threaten the integrity of the sport once again. Two players lauded for their positive contribution to this series, captain Salman Butt and young pace bowler Mohammed Amir, are suddenly accused of deliberately, and frankly ineptly, serving up no balls on demand. Also accused are “out of form” wicket keeper Kamran Akmal, whose performance against Australia at Sydney raised the spectre of match fixing at the time and bowlers Mohammed Asif and Saeed Ajmal.
There are of course no shortage of agents and hangers on claiming influence with the players and whilst we should take the word of a man setting out to impress potential clients with a pinch of salt the evidence produced thus far is damning. Added to the circumstantial evidence and attendant rumours that are fuelled by a situation like this and it’s hard to see how England can take the field in the limited overs games against a team who apparently planned on deliberately losing matches.
This is no time for jubilation, finger-pointing and I-told-you-sos. It may not even be a time for innocent til proven guilty. Time will tell but I for one would be very surprised if the announced Pakistan squad for the ODIs and T20s remains unaltered by this news.
Let’s get it right this time and make fixing any aspect of a cricket match so risky that none will consider it worth it.
More...
Like all true fans of the sport I suspect that the sickening feelings I had on reading the latest allegations to hit the game were d?j? vu all over again. Did corrupt cricketers go away just because the ICC formed a unit to investigate it?
The alleged scale, and I say alleged advisedly, of this new scandal seems to threaten the integrity of the sport once again. Two players lauded for their positive contribution to this series, captain Salman Butt and young pace bowler Mohammed Amir, are suddenly accused of deliberately, and frankly ineptly, serving up no balls on demand. Also accused are “out of form” wicket keeper Kamran Akmal, whose performance against Australia at Sydney raised the spectre of match fixing at the time and bowlers Mohammed Asif and Saeed Ajmal.
There are of course no shortage of agents and hangers on claiming influence with the players and whilst we should take the word of a man setting out to impress potential clients with a pinch of salt the evidence produced thus far is damning. Added to the circumstantial evidence and attendant rumours that are fuelled by a situation like this and it’s hard to see how England can take the field in the limited overs games against a team who apparently planned on deliberately losing matches.
This is no time for jubilation, finger-pointing and I-told-you-sos. It may not even be a time for innocent til proven guilty. Time will tell but I for one would be very surprised if the announced Pakistan squad for the ODIs and T20s remains unaltered by this news.
Let’s get it right this time and make fixing any aspect of a cricket match so risky that none will consider it worth it.
More...