Why Spot-Fixing is difficult to control
The game that was once known as the ‘gentleman’s game’ is facing the darkest period in its long history. Cricket has definitely evolved since its birth during the 16th century. The sport is neither gentle nor humble anymore. The language and the
behaviour displayed by the players on and off the field cannot be considered as an act of a true gentleman.
Cricket is now more lucrative and competitive, demanding increased physical fitness from the players. Three versions of cricket are played in the world today. Test cricket, the One Day International format and finally the new Twenty20 format.
With all these changes taking place, corruption has also evolved its way into the sport. Cricket is perhaps the only game which has been notoriously plagued with the concept of ‘throwing games’ or ‘losing on purpose’.
In the 1990’s the term ‘match-fixing’ found prominence when the International Cricket Council finally decided to identify and eradicate this menace from the sport. The ICC hit the jackpot in the mid-1990’s when South Africa’s captain Hansie Cronje was banned
for life from international cricket after it was proven that he had taken money to ‘throw matches’ in a series against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750.
After this ban, the book-makers decided to change their money making tactics. Leaving match-fixing behind, a new term, ‘spot-fixing’ has emerged in the cricketing world. According to details, spot-fixing is perhaps the ICC’s biggest challenge yet, as it
is the hardest to detect.
In spot-fixing, a player does not actually lose the match; he just does certain things while playing that earns him his black money. A common example to understand this type of corruption is when a player is asked to bowl a specific delivery at a specific
moment during the match. Bets are then placed and the lucky bookie who puts money on a specific action of the player wins.
Is there any possible way for a match-referee, team captain or field umpires to determine if a wide or a no-ball was thrown purposely or not, or if a batsman playing tentatively is actually struggling to middle the ball or making money by stopping each delivery
that he faces?
Perhaps not even http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Haroon-Lorgat-c61719, the chief executive of the ICC, is in a position to answer these questions.
The ICC has formed an anti-corruption unit, which is to keep an eye on the players and to make sure there is no foul-play during a match. The creation of this unit seems like a total waste, keeping in mind that just in August 2010 Pakistani Test skipper
Salman Butt, pacers Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif were caught by a local tabloid for allegedly being involved in spot-fixing while playing a Test against England at Lords.
Apparently the Anti-corruption Unit was caught completely off-guard by these startling revelations made public by the ‘News of the World’ tabloid.
The players face a life ban if convicted in their case as they pleaded their innocence in an ICC anti-corruption tribunal’s hearing in Doha, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Qatar-c2986 in January, 2011.
Even if the players are found guilty and barred from ever participating in any cricketing event, will it ensure that this sort of corruption will never take place? The ICC has still not actually made it clear to the rest of the world on how they plan to
indentify the possibility of spot-fixing in a particular match.
The member cricket Boards also need to define a standard operating procedure to effectively locate and identify spot-fixing as and when it happens in the future.
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