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In fairy tales that we used to read in our younger days had stories that talked about forests that had trees and lakes that housed evil characters that made our little hearts skip-a-beat.
Nevertheless wandering back through the memories of yesteryear I feel that they were only preludes given in understandable doses of things to come in life. But, the irony is that in real life even things like sport that aught to bring joy and lightheartedness into people at times is marred by occurrences unbecoming.
Last week while reading the Pakistani Daily -- the Dawn I came across the following news item. It read: “Shoaib Malik and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, two key players of the Pakistan cricket team, are likely to face a one-year ban each as recommended by the PCB committee set up to probe the team’s pathetic performance on the tour of Australia last Dec-Jan.
Rana Naved-ul-Hasan bowls as Saeed Ajmal, Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Malik watch at a practice session. Though it is being said that Shoaib Malik and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan were involved in acts of indiscipline in Australia, the timing and extent of the punishment raises doubts that they are getting punished for something more grievous. – Photo by Reuters |
Well-informed sources told Dawn that the PCB, while accepting the committee’s recommendations, has decided to show zero-tolerance for any kind of indiscipline and is contemplating imposing the bans on the two players very soon.
Though it is being said that both were involved in acts of indiscipline in Australia, the timing and extent of the punishment raises doubts that they are getting punished for something more grievous.
PCB Chairman Ijaz Butt had disclosed in a press conference earlier this month that the ICC had given the names of two players involved in match fixing but he later took a somersault to say that he was only talking about some former Test cricketers — Saleem Malik and Ata-ur-Rehman.”
Though the Pakistan cricket chief somersaulted the fact remains that the evil of match fixing a real thing and still there many players who succumb to the lust of money or just a skeleton in the cupboard. What they do is knowingly make sure that the game ends in way that a third party who has vested interests makes a killing though his intentional actions against the run of play.
So much so the ICC's Anti Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU) was set up in 2000 following a corruption scenario. Until that time the bodyline series in the 1930s and the Packer series in the 1960s were the incidents that shook the game, but, as it spreading its wings and was broad based the hawk eye caught many a mishap that was gradually eating up the credibility of the game of cricket.
The first notable incident was taking cricket away from Sharjah which by then had become a hub of international cricket. There were 198 international One Day Internationals played in Sharjah between 1984 and 2003 with cricket benefactor Abdul Rahman Bukhatir at the helm with former Pakistan international Asif Iqbal handling the cricket aspects. However once the ICC Anti Corruption Unit was placed the use of Sharjah as an international cricketing venue has declined is due to the surfacing of match fixing allegations. This led to the Indian government banning the national cricket team from playing at Sharjah. Since then, the new 20,000 seat Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi has become the preferred venue for cricket in the UAE.
The biggest shake-up in World Cricket in the wake of match-fixing allegations and revelations about South Africa captain Hansie Cronje and the captains of India and Pakistan, Mohammed Azharuddin and Salim Malik. Eventually all three were banned for life from international cricket. Besides the above mentioned several other Indian cricketers were looked through the lenses and dealt with by the ICC and even once some of the Lankan cricketers including former captain Arjuna Ranatunga and his deputy Aravinda de Silva were under scrutiny and quizzed by the ICC.
According to a ICC official the organisation is very much concerned about the evil aspects of match fixing and are educating the budding cricketers that come under their purview from junior levels about the bad effects and the repercussions of ‘throwing the game’ but still the news of players crossing the boarder of deceit surface from time to time.
At the same time how does one draw the line between a decision of a player to do something during the match that would have a very strange ending to the game. A classic example was the last Pakistan-Sri Lanka Test match played the Galle International Stadium. Pakistan who almost dominated more than 65% of the game and were coasting towards a comfortable win on the fourth day chasing a target of 267 to win and closing the third day at a healthy 71 for 2 suddenly crashed to a 50 run defeat on the fourth morning.
Speculation was rife and there were rumors of the visitors dumping the game, but, no hard evidence surfaced and the wagon kept going.
I just asked a former International cricketer of how it happens and where does one draw the line. I asked him for instance a batsman in form and whose side is coasting to a comfortable win suddenly decides to play a very unbecoming stroke and is missed. He goes for the same in the next delivery and the very same fielder accepts the second chance with much appreciation and the side that was coasting and hour ago is suddenly facing a collapse and then crash to a defeat. Doesn’t that tantamount to match fixing?
Or else a champion batsman who only comes out with superlative performance once in five innings or so and that innings makes sure that his side wins? How could that batsman measure and make sure that he scores at the right time?
Then he professed that one can not single out a player over his judgement of a stroke. Every player wears the national cap with pride, but there are bad apples in the basket at times. It is up to the individual player. Only he knows what he is up to and the repercussions of his actions. For an institution like the ICC they need absolute proof before taking action against an individual player or a team. Then at the same time there are times that the national cricket authorities shield the crooked cricketers for the sake of national pride.
But, however it is a menace that should be eradicated and every player should know how valuable the national cap is and how many aspiring players who missed wearing that cap because he was better than them.
PS: However with carnivals like the IPL can one keep out corruption creeping into the game of cricket? . |
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