THE GENTLEMAN’S GAME of cricket has suffered a major blow and may now be falling victim to a den of gamblers. The scandal has now moved to another level to what is now being called Spotgate.
Over the past few years cricket has been dogged by scandals involving match-fixing activities of the type orchestrated in 2000 by the late South African captain Hansie Cronje. These have now been overtaken by a new menace, spot-fixing.
This involves gambling on aspects of games within a game. It might be the number of catches in an innings or the number of no-balls. It might get down to when those no-balls are bowled. The rewards are reportedly huge in a sport that attracts much more betting than football.
It might not be a surprise, therefore, that Pakistani pace bowlers Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif are alleged to have deliberately bowled three no-balls during a Test match against England at Lord’s.
That this will likely wreck the career of Amir, an outstanding 18-year-old regarded as the heir-apparent to Wasim Akram, will hopefully be a deterrent for others tempted to tread the same path. We wonder whether it would make a difference given the financial inducement.
That it occurred at cricket’s most famous ground, a place imbued with the honourable traditions of the game, merely added to the ignominy of the crime. If true, the Pakistani players will enter a “gallery of shame” that already includes one of their former captains, Salim Malik, and another pace bowler, Atar-ur-Rehman, who received life bans from the sport in 2000 for match-fixing.
The frightening thought is that if not nipped in the bud, millions of diehard fans during a game might well be watching carefully crafted theatre. The truth is that spot betting desecrates the game, and because every single action on the field of play comes under suspicion.
Though cricket is based on individual performances while still demanding team spirit, every “scene” could now possibly be a staged rehearsal. Was the no-ball or dropped-catch deliberate? Was the “silly” run-out a previously planned exercise?
It is difficult to escape from the cloud over the game. It is also making the claim of wearing one’s country’s colours with pride a travesty. How could that be if a player cares little for the glory and majesty that goes with that privilege?
This leads to a greater concern by many: is the rot any deeper? What about the spot effect in the truncated 50-Over and Twenty20 matches where the unconventional and taking chances offer far more camouflage for cheating or contrived performances?
Given the huge sums available from betting outfits, it would be idle to believe that even the harshest penalty will put an end to the problem. The huge popularity for Twenty20 cricket presents new opportunities for greed, and tarnishing the image of the game
