Match-fixing of the non-cricketing kind: Snooker player John Higgins’ hearing begins
To the disgusted and disappointed Pakistani cricket fans: You are not alone! In the lucrative world of sports, match-fixing is a horror that is somewhat rampant. Like clandestine meetings with a forbidden lover, cheating for money is a crime that has huge ramifications when the cheater is ‘discovered’. All the same, the world still turns and people still fall prey to its trappings. The connection here is that of the reporter; Pakistani cricketers have been declared alleged spot-fixers by the same man who declared he has evidence of top-notch snooker player John Higgins agreeing to cheat.
John Higgins has been playing professional snooker since 1992. The 35-year old Scot has won 21 ranking titles and has three World Snooker Championships to his name. For the 2010-11 snooker season, he is provisionally ranked as the number one player and yet his good name is somewhat tarnished by the alleged match-fixing case. From 2 May, 2010, he has been suspended from tournament play by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association for the same reason.
September 7th, 2010 marks the beginning of a two-day disciplinary hearing for this 2009 Snooker Champion and his alleged accomplice, manager Pat Mooney. The allegations came complete with very concrete evidence in the form of a video secured by the tabloid “News of the World”. The whole affair had been orchestrated by reporter Mazher Mahmood. The paper claimed that Higgins agreed to lose frames in four matches in a series of new tournaments in return for £261,000.
Higgins maintains that he is innocent of the crime he’s been accused of. Moreover, the authenticity of the said video evidence is also under consideration since the Sporting Intelligence website has detected some anomalies between the video subtitles and actual voice track. There are also claims that the audio track on the video appears to be manipulated and rearranged.
The newly appointed world snooker chairman Barry Hearn employed a former police chief, David Douglas, to investigate the matter. Douglas will hand over his findings to Sport Resolutions, the independent dispute resolution service. The two-day tribunal will be headed by Ian Mill QC. Mill has had experience with sporting cases in the past, such as soccer player Rio Ferdinand’s rejected appeal against an eight-month suspension for failing to show up at a drugs test.
The events that led to the incrimination of Higgins were a farce, and hence Higgins and Mooney may have some leverage. The exact charges against the two are still not confirmed and may include intent to fix a match and failure to report an illegal approach. If Higgins and Mooney are indeed found to be guilty, they will have to face lengthy bans from snooker. If not, Higgins will get the chance to reclaim his reputation at the World Open, which takes place in Glasgow from 18th September, 2010.
Snooker is a particularly complex sport when it comes to analysis as it is hard to determine whether a shot was missed by accident or not. Here is a case where there was no actual match-fixing but a suspected and alleged intent to do so. Though the expose meant headlines and meant big money for the papers, it was also bound to have major ramifications on the lives of those involved and the world of snooker at large.
The “News of the World” reporter, whose efforts led to this incrimination, has also been behind various other such exposes. These include many sports and political figures such as footballers John Barnes and John Fashanu, world champion boxer Joe Calzaghe and most recently, Pakistan cricketers. Many disagree with the events that led up to these exposes and hence may consider them to be inadmissible, but they do reveal the intent and ability of the said party given a particular situation.
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