Cricket Special Report: Cricket, Corruption and Crime
The latest allegations of spot fixing to hit the sport of cricket are the newest in a long line of dodgy affairs and corrupt practices that have been going on in cricket for as long as the game has been around. Is there a more sinister side to match fixing and spot fixing than simply earning illegal money, is there a link between kidnapping and murder to cricket match fixing? Could it be that the illegal practice of match fixing has gotten so out of hand that criminal and nefarious characters actually hold player’s families to ransom if a match is not thrown or spot fixing does not occur? Money seems to be the root of all evil in the sport and people will do anything to get it, even kill people.
Match fixing is nothing new in cricket, it seems to have started a long time ago. Some have alleged that the illegal practice began in England county cricket. Money was first seen in county cricket and with money came betting and with betting came match fixing. A report was produced a few years ago by the ICC’s Anti Corruption Committee and it showed evidence that match fixing started in county cricket before it spread to the Subcontinent and Dubai and from there it took on kidnappings and murder to achieve the goals of the criminals. People would hire middlemen to doctor a result that they had bet on and if a person refused, they would contact gangsters and criminals to kidnap the player’s family members until he complied with the request. This took place only in extreme circumstances because usually a player’s greed for money was focused on and criminals did not have to resort to kidnappings and murder.
Stories abound from the world of cricket that link kidnappings and murder to match fixing allegations. In 2009, a seven year old boy was murdered by gangsters and his body was dumped near an abandoned factory. People were shocked when they learnt that police were investigating links that the boy’s family had to the criminal underworld and a match fixing middleman. Initial reports came in that said the boy’s uncle had deep ties to the cricket match fixing underworld and had been arrested previously, while trying to fix an IPL match in the past. This dodgy case shows us that kidnappings and murder are heavily embroiled in the world of cricket match fixing and betting.
Wasim Akram, the former great Pakistani fast bowler, reported in 2000 when he was being investigated for match fixing that his 65 year old father had been kidnapped by two dodgy bookies and had been beaten over a two day period. The bookies had demanded that Akram throw a match and according to him when he refused, his father went missing. He was eventually recovered but this example just shows us that people are willing to do anything to make money from the sport.
In 2008, the Pakistan Cricket Board, employed a high court judge to produce a report into the match fixing claims of the late 90s and early 2000s, he uncovered a lot of startling facts. Malik Mohammad Qayyum interviewed a lot of people close to the match fixing allegations and found that there were several incidents of kidnappings and murders that took place, all surrounding illegal betting on cricket matches. The judge uncovered a triangle of crime hotspots in the world; Mumbai, Karachi and Dubai. It seems that bookies would have a network setup all along this triangle and exploit cricketers and their families into getting what they wanted. One of the biggest criminals at the time, Dawood Ibrahim, who was deeply involved in cricket scams, moved around between these three locations and is still at large. With the lid having been blown off the lid of match fixing, spot fixing, and its ties to criminal gangs and the underworld, hopefully steps will be taken to ensure that nefarious elements are cleaned up from the sport and cricketers do not have to play in fear for their families’ safety.
This has been one of the worst things to happen to the sport of cricket since it was invented. With the introduction of criminal elements into the mix, the image of the whole game has been tarnished. Players will be questioned and banned but will that really solve the problem. The problem of corruption and criminal activity is so deeply rooted in the sport that some very powerful purging will have to be done to clean up cricket once and for all.
Tags: