All posts tagged 'mohammed asif'

The spot fixing trial has culminated in guilty verdicts for Mohammed Asif and Salman Butt, so now begins the hand-wringing and post-mortems.

It is always dangerous in the immediate aftermath of such a sensational trial to reach hasty conclusions and intone earnestly on what lies ahead, but that hasn’t stopped a plethora of pundits from giving their immediate reactions.

 For some the trial has “proved” that Pakistani cricket is corrupt to its very core. Kamran Akmal and Wahab Riaz have been reported as now coming under scrutiny as a result of evidence given at the trial. The Sydney test between Australia and Pakistan is being cited as an example that not just spot fixing but even more seriously (if that’s possible), match fixing has been endemic in games involving Pakistan for some time.

For others the trial is a success for the processes of law and will strengthen not just cricket but every sport’s drive to eradicate the pernicious influence of fixers from the game. They support jail terms for the convicted cricketers believing that this will act as a deterrent to future would-be transgressors.

And for many pundits the focus has already moved on to how we police the game in future. The often opined solution appears to be for cricketers, past and present, to act as the eyes and ears of the authorities and report any suspicious activity like some kind of vast, intra-cricketing Neighbourhood Watch Scheme.

But absent from these reactions seems to be any kind of realistic or even internally coherent analysis of what the trial has exposed.

Ever since we launched Test Match Sofa in July 2009 I have been fortunate enough to meet numerous cricketers both past and present. Barely a conversation has been completed without an “off the record” nudge nudge wink wink about the prevalence of spot fixing.  I have been regaled with tales by a reliable source who was active in the ICL of exactly how bookmakers entrapped players – it seems to have involved parties, the ready availability of women who are not the players’ wives or girlfriends and substantial quantities of alcohol. Once sucked in they are ripe for blackmail, unsurprisingly.

When I’ve asked players if they were willing to discuss their views on air or on the written record they quite understandably clam up. The fear of reprisals for whistleblowing  is tangible, and the notion that players who have families to protect should put their heads above the parapet and do the ICC’s dirty work for them is not just risible, it’s irresponsible. Indeed, when you consider the deterrent effect of a jail term in the UK, be mindful of the greater deterrent effect of having your family threatened by people who operate within the same moral guidelines as the Cosa Nostra.

Whilst I am initially drawn to the suggestion floated by Angus Porter, Chief Executive of the Professional Cricketers Association, of an amnesty for all cricketers from prosecution if they come clean about any approaches they’ve had from would be match fixers, I can’t see how it addresses the fear of the illegal bookies themselves.

As for the notion that this is a Pakistani problem alone, whoever believes that should go and talk to the cricketers (remember the ones? The guys who should now be the eyes and ears of the ICC), off the record inevitably, and you will hear speculation about players from every test playing (and in some cases non test playing) country in the world. It is true that Pakistani players are paid badly relative to their other international counterparts. It is also true that match fixers will be able to incentivise poorly paid players more easily than wealthy ones to do their bidding, initially at least. But now consider how many 1^st class and limited overs matches are played across the world and bet on through illegal bookmakers. And note how poorly paid these non-international cricketers are from Barbados to Chelmsford to Columbo and Brisbane. If poorly paid internationals are willing to risk their careers AND the relative glory of competing at the highest level, why wouldn’t equally poorly paid county cricketers do the same?

At the very core of this whole issue is the unregulated market in gambling. As long as gambling is illegal it will come under the same pressures as alcohol did in prohibition America and recreational drugs do across the world now. Organised crime seizes on unregulated markets and perverts them.

So just as dodgy hooch in the 30s and toxically adulterated heroine today floods the markets, so does the corrosive influence of illegal bookmakers on the sporting contests we all want to watch.

We have an international problem fuelled by illegal bookmakers who coerce young men through blackmail and sizeable quantities of cash to act contrary to the very principles of sport. Perhaps we could start with regulating the bookmakers and legalising gambling across the cricket playing world. I have no idea how you persuade the Indian legislature to bring in such a radical reform, but I never said the answer was easy, and I sure as hell know that charging cricketers with policing their game in the teeth of highly effective organised crime syndicates is absolutely no kind of solution at all.

To make your voice heard in the media you need to adopt one of two approaches -  opinions delivered as earnest sincerity, or relentless cynicism that in its more charming guise morphs into affectionate flippancy.

The latest allegations, leveled this time at members of the Pakistan cricket team of match manipulation for the purpose of defrauding bookies, presents the most penetrating of challenges for me. Everyone likes to be certain of their opinion, hence the bombast of the phone-in callers armed with no concrete information but fuelled by the giddy high of self-righteousness.

Conversely my certainty has always been that cricket is a game; it’s fun and silly and beautiful and rich in fantasy but if you take terribly seriously the actions of 22 men cavorting around with sticks and balls within a highly choreographed, rule based and frankly very camp environment, observed by thousands of people laden with picnics, you really do need to get out a little more.

But every thought I have on the affair, from Salman Butt’s jacket in that photo to the ludicrously stage managed indoor presentation ceremony replete with hushed Gower commentary, is met by a force of sincere and earnest rage in me with which I am very unfamiliar.

To illustrate the mental turmoil that besets the would-be wit, here are four thoughts I’ve tried to have on the subject and the corresponding opinion to which I am truly attached.

The charge is that by throwing in no balls to order, the accused payers are defrauding bookies. If that isn’t a victimless crime I don’t know what is. Bookies never lose; that’s how they build huge businesses. And after all, the Pakistan players are the worst paid in the world. Surely they should get our support in the struggle of the underdog against the oppressor?

Well, no. They’re defrauding all the punters who quite reasonably didn’t expect Pakistan to bowl 68 no balls in the series. Or whoever has got a bet on there not being a no ball. And the players are better paid than nearly all their compatriots whom they represent on the field. By being caught they threaten the livelihoods of their fellow players who are not involved in fraud, since it is very likely that, if found guilty, Pakistan will play far fewer matches, with smaller attendances, attracting less money. Any form of international cricket being played in Pakistan is now ever more unlikely with the attendant loss of revenue for everyone from rickshaw drivers to pavement food sellers, to hoteliers and so forth. The victims are legion and mostly poor, the beneficiaries of fraud are all, without exception, already wealthy.

But you’ve got to love the orgy of speculation and conspiracy theorizing that attends these “outrages”. Suddenly everyone thinks they know why Yousuf was banned, fingers are pointed at all and sundry, forums are ablaze with groundless accusations. Disproportionate grief and disgust is expressed by a mountain of maniacs. That has to be quite funny doesn’t it?

No. That’s what’s so outrageous about the alleged actions. Every cricketer now wonders whether he was right to feel elated about that wicket or that century. And not just against Pakistan. These allegations will result in official scrutiny of hundreds of matches and unofficial reflection by fans and players that could undermine the experiences of fans (many of whom will simply stay away from now on) and the professional career choices of thousands of players who will wonder what the hell they were doing for 15 years.

That presentation ceremony, though, you have to admit that was bizarre. Like watching old footage of half dead Russian premiers being dragged from hospital beds to cast a vote for themselves in fake elections.

Maybe it was bizarre, but in the most horrific of ways. If the crowd want to boo Amir they should have been allowed to. These allegations are all about secrecy, about somebody being in the know to the detriment of thousands of fans being taken for a ride. So what happens? They go scuttling into the Long Room, shuffling and mumbling their way through a stilted stage managed farce rather than face the music in a sprit of glasnost.

Surely the ODI series will be hilarious. If Pakistan suspend everyone whose name is associated with the allegations they won’t be able to put a team out. Is there enough time to organize a cricket style X factor with club players of Pakistani origin from around the UK auditioning for the vacant roles of no balling pace bowler, a keeper and a couple of batsmen for good measure?

The ODI series will either be cancelled - at a cost of £12million to the ECB which constitutes half its current reserves - or a load of matches will take place in an at best eerie atmosphere, at worst a down right hostile one. What’s to like about that?

Despite the nonsense about Lord’s hallowed turf, and the hyperbolic references to treachery and betrayal, on every count I find myself siding, on this occasion, with the outraged, the earnest and the sincere. For that, more than anything, I should be counted among the victims.