Cricket News Special Edition: ‘Fixing is cricket’s global warming challenge,’ says Ian Chappell
Ian Chappell feels that fixing can prove to be Pakistan’s global warming challenge, for it is not a off-time incident, but a stark reality the world had witnessed not so long ago when many international cricketers including Hansie Cronje, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Salim-c88143 Malik were found to be involved in match-fixing. Fixing has been a phenomenon seen in cricket for the last many years however, the ICC seemed to have been in control of the issue for the previous years or so it seemed. The general perception amongst the different camps is that the ACSU is just an attempt by the ICC to window dress their Anti Corruption Unit, whereas many people have gone on to question its effectiveness.
In the entire, spot fixing controversy the most confounding questions that come to the fore are that what mechanisms has the ICC evolved since the beginning of this decade to ensure that all the cricket boards around the world inculcate a positive environment in their teams, and domestic cricket with safe measures to stop this viral plague? Whether the ICC has created a monitor for its own Anti Corruption Units effectiveness? Has the ICC given an incentive to the players to come forward with their confessions in order to better aid the investigation processes?
In the face of all these questions it would be interesting to note how at the foreground of all this controversy many players have found this opportunity to come forward to explain their own experiences of being approached by bookies, who in most cases have been alleged to be Indians. If this is in fact the scenario, and there is no doubt that a large gambling underworld mafia lies within http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750, then it is incredulous to even suggest that as such the Indian team has not been approached by the bookies. Given this scenario, is it then the role of the BCCI, which makes the players lie low even if they have been approached by bookmakers? Does the BCCI need to come up with a policy to ensure that there is an incentive for players to report any such advances?
At the core of the spot-fixing scandal, lies the sincere and heartfelt observations of former coach Geoff Lawson, who has come forward to highlight a number of problems that he felt have hampered the development of cricket in Pakistan. The biggest amongst those problems is the Chairman of the PCB Mr Ijaz Butt, literally and figuratively.
“Pakistan cricket is in the midst of its greatest crisis since 14th August 1947, when they became a country. I hope against hope that things will turn out alright but this is very much a watershed for Pakistan cricket right now,” Geoff Lawson observed.
Geoff Lawson feels that Pakistan cricket has had been going in decline ever since http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ijaz-Butt-c64128 has been appointed as the chairman of the PCB, saying that he almost feels as if the Cricket Board in the country is non-functional.
“You see that the PCB has almost been non-functioning. And despite this crisis, we have heard virtually nothing from their chairman. He hides from a crisis, he is not a leader and when Pakistan needs a strong leader and people to show them the way forward, they are not getting it from their board,” Lawson exclaimed.
In the face of this controversy lies Salman Butt the captain of the relatively new Test-side for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Nasser-Hussain-c78777 stating that he believes in giving people a second chance.
This is, however, the perfect opportunity for the ICC to reflect upon its own failings rather than anything else, and how they have failed to protect the players from the bookmakers, and gamblers. ICC above all else, needs to take some draconian measures against those involved and revamp their own structure to ensure that they are more effective in the future.
As for spot-fixing, Ian Chappell rightly notes that “The anti-corruption unit, we are told had an eye on Mr. Fix-it Majeed, in England, and they have had an eye on him for a while. Now, if this is true then I have got to ask a question - why the h**l they didn't warn Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Asif, and Salman Butt? And why didn't they warn all the cricketers? Do they think that young, star cricketers grow on trees? These guys need to be protected.”
Unfortunately ICC seemed to have a different motto inspired by the three wise monkeys of see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.
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