Spot-fixing – Fair, Unreasonable and What lies ahead – Analysis – Part 1
The recent events relating to cricket has been heartbreaking, painful and tragic for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 Cricket. Terming it just a sad day will be a true understatement considering the magnitude of the consequences faced by the families of the three banned trios,
along with it being another major blow for a country, still trying to find its place among the cricketing elite.
Incident -
The three men under consideration are former Men In Green skipper, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mohammad-Amir-c76675. All were charged of conspiring to spot-fixing on accounts of a Test match, which took place at Lord’s last year against
hosts, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c56013.
Under a sting operation carried by the defunct News of World, it was leaked out that book-maker and player’s agent, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mazhar-c75448 Majeed conspired with the trio to bowl pre-determined no-balls. The event eventually did take place with Amir bowling two huge no balls
while Asif stepping the popping crease once.
The outcome of the verdict is we all know has been given with Butt handed the highest penalty of the three, getting a jail sentence of 30 months, followed by Asif ( 12 months) and Amir ( 6 months). Majeed for his involvement got a jail term of 32 months,
the maximum.
Fair
Talking about whether it was a fair trial, one must put it in a way which suggests that such verdict was necessary for the sport to finally come clean and offer strict punishment for those trying to make quick bucks. With all parties believing that it is
not a one off isolated affairs, the ruling will send out clear warning for anyone trying to altercate the proceedings for his own good.
Justice Cook, the man who handed strict verdict for all parties involved in his final report maintained the stance that the incident has tainted a dent in people’s mind over whether there are watching a closely fought contest or simply a battle where a few
will triumph in the end. However, one can conclude that the verdict has brought justice to the sport itself.
Unreasonable
Unreasonable - When taking such attitude, one primarily is not criticizing the sentence handed to the player but simply trying to grasp the pros and cons, associated with the whole saga. The main questions lingers on the accounts of the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/ICC-World-Cup-2011-c100625 and whether
they should have done something radical in order for the game to be clean at the first place.
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves and only blame Pakistani players for doing such wrong doings when in the past we have seen the likes of former Men In Blue player, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Wessel-Johannes-Cronje-c96502 handed life bans for their involvement
in “Match-fixing”, which is an even bigger sin in the cricketing world when one compares it with a small matter of fixing facets of a match.
A more diligent approach must be therefore applied by the highest governing body and if they had done something earlier, this incident would have not even taken place. If one seeks justice, then the International cricket council must first clean up their
act, which will go a long way in setting an example for not only cricket but for every sports played in the world.
To be continued...
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